Ultraman Titan
by Tryingtowriteprostyle
Summary: When the land of light falls, a young ultra escapes to Earth with the plasma spark. However, the invading monsters follow him. Now it's up to earth's newest hero to save us all. Will update as soon as i have some new ideas. If you've got any, let me know.
1. The fall of the land of light

Chapter one

"Looks like we're going down, Tiga." A giant alien said to his comrade. "Maybe so, Dyna. But at least we fall defending our home. Now, let's go make our final stand!" The other alien, named Tiga, said. "Right. You charge from the right while I lay down cover fire." "Got it. Attack!" Meanwhile, a smaller alien and his big brother ran, unseen, around the back side of the other aliens' battle. "Taro! Taro!" The younger, smaller alien called. The other alien didn't stop running. "Taro!" "What?" the alien named Taro yelled, finally stopping. "I don't feel right about leaving Tiga and Dyna like that. Shouldn't we help them? I mean, they are our friends. They're brothers." "Listen, Riser. Tiga and Dyna chose to stay behind. They know the cost of their decision. Our mission is to make sure that the plasma spark gets as far from the battle field as possible." "But…" Taro knelt down and put his hand on Riser's shoulder. "Listen, little brother. I understand how you feel. Believe me I do. But, Tiga and Dyna are fighting so that our mission can succeed. They know that they might not survive the battle and that's a sacrifice they are willing to make. So, we must honor their sacrifice and complete our mission. Understand?" "I guess. But, where can we take the plasma spark? We're supposed to take the spark away from the fighting, but how can we? There's fighting everywhere." "I guess we'll just have to take it off planet." "Off planet? But, I can barely fly around the city. How am I supposed to go off planet?" "Don't worry. I know a secret." "What's that?" "Under the healing bay, there's a special portal. It leads directly to earth." "Earth?" "You know about Earth, don't you?" "I've heard stories. Matter of fact, haven't you been there, big brother?" "Indeed I have. And I have an idea on how to hide on Earth. But, first, we need to get to the portal. Come on." "Right."

The two brothers continued running, dodging any scenes of battle they came across. As they ran, Riser began to wonder how his brother could carry the plasma spark, when every story he had heard about it said that merely touching it would drive someone insane. He decided that he had to ask. "Taro?" "What now, Riser?" "I was wondering, how can you carry the spark without being corrupted?" Taro stuck one hand out. "See these gauntlets I'm wearing?" "Yes." "Well, they're part of a special set of armor designed to handled the spark. The funnel the energy of the spark away from me, allowing me to carry it." "Who designed the armor?" "Hikari did. He can make anything." "Guess he's not ranked so high in the science bureau for nothing." "He's surely not." "Where's the rest of the armor?" "Last I heard, it was with princess Yullian." "Best hands to put something like that in." "Definitely. Alright, we're almost there. Let's move it." "Right.

The brothers eventually made it to the healing bay. Standing by the door to greet them was none other than the princess herself. "Princess Yullian? What are you doing here?" Taro asked. "I'm helping with the injured. Come inside, quickly." The brothers hurried inside. "Your father called ahead. He said you might come by here with the spark, but where is he?" "We don't know. He may have been captured, or maybe even…" Taro started. "Don't talk like that, Taro. You know father could never be defeated." "I just don't know, Riser. I mean, every monster that's attacking the planet took ten of our men to capture in the first place. And at least three of them were fighting with father when we left with Tiga and Dyna." "You must have faith in your father like Riser does, Taro." Yullian said. "But, Princess, the monsters even managed to some how seal your father on his private planet. And the king's far more powerful than my father." "I know the stakes, Taro. But, I also know your father very well. I know that, while his combat record isn't spotless, he wasn't made supreme commander for nothing. We must have faith in his skills." "Yes, ma'am." Yullian nodded. "Now then, do you have a plan for what to do with the plasma spark?" "Yes, that's why we came here. We want to use the Earth portal." "I see. You wish to hide the spark on Earth." "Yes, ma'am. It's as far from M78 as we can get, and that's what father told us to do. Take the spark far away from the fighting." "What about the humans?" "I'll protect them if need be." "Hmm, you'll need all the help you can get then. I and some of the brothers that are recovering here will accompany you and Riser." "Um, very well then. Um, but first, if I can ask a favor?" "What is it?" "I wish to protect Riser, even when I'm not around. So could you give him the spark handling armor? I'll give him the gauntlets." "Very well then. Riser?" "Yes Princess?" "Come with me. Your getting some special equipment." "Riser, here. Take these gauntlets." "Are you trusting me with the spark?" "Don't worry, you won't be carrying the spark all the time." "Uh..." "Just go." "Alright. Let's go, Princess." As Riser walked off with the Princess and the spark, another, nearby alien came up to Taro. "Just what are you planning, Taro?" The alien asked. "I know what your thinking, Leo. But, rest assured, I won't let any harm befall my little brother. This is just a little, as the humans would say, added insurance." The alien known as Leo nodded. "So, what happened to Ace and Mebius? I thought they'd be with you." "The last report I heard said that Mebius was still out there fighting, somewhere. As for Ace, well, I didn't have the heart to tell Riser but, the last report also said that Ace had fallen." "Sorry to hear that. Hmm, tell you what. It's been a while since I've been to Earth, so I'll go with you." "Thank you, Leo."

Riser soon returned with the princess. He now wore a red and gold colored armor over his normal red and blue, v patterned suit. "You look good, little brother." "Thanks, Taro. Alright, let's go." "Princess, I want to come with you." Leo said. "Very well then. I've also asked Jack and Zoffy to accompany us. They're already heading for the portal. Let's go." The group headed into the depths of the building, eventually meeting up with the aliens known as Jack and Zoffy along the way. They soon reached the portal. However, they were caught off guard when to of the monster from out side crashed through the ceiling. "Did you really think we couldn't detect the energy signature of your little gate?" One of the monsters asked. "But how? You don't have the technology!" taro yelled. "There's a lot you don't, and never will know. Now, hand over the spark!" "Never!" Taro yelled. He then crossed his arms in an l shape and fired an energy beam at the monster. Monster shrugged off the beam like it was nothing. "Everyone, attack!" Zoffy yelled. Despite their best efforts, every warrior eventually fell, except for Taro and Riser. The monsters backed the brothers into a corner. "Give us the crystal!" "Never!" "Then die!" "Riser!" Taro threw himself in front of Riser, which allowed the attacking monster's claws to sink deep into his back. "Agh!" "Taro!" Riser yelled. The monster threw Taro against the wall. "Taro!" Riser knelt by his brother. "Riser, listen. Go to Earth. Find a man named Kotaro Higashi. He should help you. Ngh!" "Your not going anywhere, kid!" A monster shouted and attacked Riser. Taro shoved Riser out of the way with his last bit of strength and took the monster's attack directly to the chest. This was final blow. The monster ripped his claws out and Taro fell dead on the floor. Enraged by the loss of his brother, Riser attacked the monster, but he was no match. The monster threw Riser against the far wall. The impact jarred the plasma spark from Riser's hand. Riser looked at the spark and an idea formed in his head. Riser grabbed the spark and climbed to his feet. "I don't care if it corrupts me, I'm going to use this power to destroy you! Plasma Spark, give me strength!" Riser yelled, before slamming the crystal against the crystal in the middle of his chest. Just then, the armor Riser wore began to glow and began funneling energy from the spark into Riser. Riser began to grow taller and older looking. The armor also began to fuse to his suit. When the process finally stopped, Riser stood reborn in an adult form. He wasted no time in gawking at his new appearance. He charged up an energy blast in each hand and blasted both monsters. The blasts instantly destroyed the monsters. It was then that Riser finally calmed down and looked at himself. "What happened to me? I'm all grown up and the spark didn't corrupt me. What's going on?" Riser then took in the scene. He looked at all his fallen friends. "Everyone, I'm so sorry I couldn't stop them sooner." Riser then looked at Taro. "Taro…" Taro's words began to ring in Riser's head. He remembered Taro talking about honoring the sacrifices of the fallen. "Taro, your sacrifice won't be in vain. I'll take the spark to Earth. I'll find this Kotaro person. I promise I will….Guess I'd better get going. Goodbye everyone. Rest in peace." Riser headed into the portal. He traveled some ways into it, before thinking about the possibility of more monsters using the portal to follow him. He turned and blasted the entrance. There was an explosion and the entrance closed. "There's no going back now. Look out Earth. Here I come."


	2. First battle

Chapter 2

As Riser made his way to Earth, a small, bat-like creature flew up towards the sky. He headed to an ominous looking ship. "I must tell the master what I've seen." The creature said. The creature soon reached his destination. "Master, it's me." The creature said as he approached a large door. "Enter." Said a dark voice from the other side of the door. The creature flew inside and approached a large, reptile like monster. "Master Draxil, I have urgent news." "This had better be good, Tyros. What is it?" "An ultraman has escaped with the plasma spark." "What?" "Well, you see, master, I was watching Gorgo and Dadelus trash some of those pesky ultras in an underground room below their healing area, when something strange happened." "What happened?" "Well, one of the ultras looked like a child and he was the one with the spark. Well, when Gorgo killed this one ultra with a set of horns sticking out of his head, the boy attacked him. Obviously, he was no match for Gorgo and Gorgo swatted him away. But, when the boy got back up, he shouted something about destroying Gorgo and Dadelus and then he slammed the plasma spark against his chest crystal. Then a bright glow came from the armor the boy was wearing and the boy started to change. He got bigger, older looking too. And, when the transformation finally stopped, he looked like an adult ultra. Then, he quickly charged up an energy blast in each hand and he blasted Gorgo and Dadelus. And he destroyed them, when the other ultras couldn't even scratch them." "He must've absorbed the power of the plasma. That makes him our new target. You said that he escaped, tell me how and where he went." "Well, it turns out that the ultras had a secret inter-space portal hidden in that room I talked about. The ultra that escaped entered the portal and, from what I saw, destroyed it the entrance from inside." "Trying to make sure that we couldn't follow him no doubt. Where did he go?" "I heard the ultra man with horns tell the pre-transformation ultra boy to go to someplace called Earth." "So this portal led to this Earth, eh?" "I don't know probably." "Hmm. Computer, give me coordinates for a place called Earth." The ship's computer immediately posted the coordinates on a nearby giant screen, along with a picture of Earth. "So, that's where he's going, eh? Well, we'll just have to make him regret that decision. Call everyone back. Tell them to bring back any ultra's they can and prepare for launch." "Yes sir." Soon all the monsters gathered in the ship. "Computer, open an inter-space gate to Earth." The computer did as told. "Launch!" The ship shot into the gate and the gate closed behind the ship.

Meanwhile, on Earth, a teenage boy headed for school. "'sigh' This is going to be another boring day. Even with the field trip, it's still going to be dull. Man, nothing ever happens around here. Oh, why couldn't I have been around when Ultraman was here? Now those were exciting times." The boy said to himself. "Hey, Tatsuya!" The boy heard a girl's voice cry. "Huh?" The boy turned to see a girl, about his age, running towards him. 'Oh, hey, Sakura." The boy, named Tatsuya, said. "Don't you hey Sakura me, Tatsuya Higurashi. You were supposed to wait for me so that we could walk to school together." "Well, I'm sorry, Ms. Kudo, but I did wait. For a good ten minutes I waited. But, somebody didn't show up. What happened? Did you sleep in?" A blush of embarrassment went across Sakura's face. "Ha, I knew it!" "Stop laughing! It's not funny!" "Sorry. Well, we're together now, so let's go." "Right." The two hurried to school. Today was their class's field trip to the local forest. The teacher had said they were going on a 'nature appreciation walk'. The kids were sketchy on the idea, but welcomed any opportunity to get out of school. "So, what do you think we'll do on the walk?" Sakura asked as she and Tatsuya entered the school. "Beats me. Probably try to identify different kinds of plants and stuff like that." "Boring." "Well, did you expect any different?" "Guess not. Well, guess we'd better get to class, for however long we'll be there." "Right." The two didn't have to wait long. No sooner had they entered the classroom, then it was time to go. The class quickly boarded the bus and headed to the forest. Once they arrived, the teacher, Mr. Seta, ordered them to form groups of two and handed out lists of plants the class needed to collect samples of. Naturally, Tatsuya and Sakura grouped together. They had been neighbors and friends for years. They received a list of the plant life they were supposed to collect samples of and headed off. Much later, they sat on a large rock, taking a break. "Man, I hate this. I'd actually rather be in class." Tatsuya said. "Me too. This is stupidest thing I've ever had to do. Hey, why don't we cheat out on this?" "We can't do that. You know how strict Mr. Seta is. He'll question us about why we came back so early and you know he can detect lies." "Well, how's about we go back for more water? I'm all out and I need more." "Well, that's no lie, so he'll accept that." "Alright, let's go."

The duo headed back for the bus. As they walked, Sakura looked around. "You know, all in all, this is a nice day out. The forest is beautiful." "Sure is." Sakura leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath of fresh air. When she opened her eyes, she noticed something strange. "Tatsuya! Look at the sky!" "The sky?" Tatsuya looked up. The sky looked like it was warping out of shape and then suddenly, a great hole opened in the sky. "What the? A hole in the sky?" Tatsuya yelled. The next thing Tatsuya saw was even stranger. He saw something fly out of the hole. He followed it's movements until it touched down not far from him and Sakura. Suddenly, they found themselves staring up at a familiar looking, humanoid figure. "Ultraman." Sakura muttered. It was Riser. He had finally arrived on Earth. "So, this is Earth." Riser thought to himself. He started to look around. As he did, Sakura decided to try to get his attention. "Ultraman! Hey, Ultraman!" "I don't think he's paying attention to you, Sakura. He seems preoccupied with something." "I wonder what?…Huh? Look, the sky's acting funny again. Maybe it's another Ultraman." However, Sakura's hopes were dashed when a evil looking ship exited the hole. "What the heck is that thing?" Sakura asked. "Oh no, they followed me!" Riser thought when he saw the ship. Meanwhile, on the ship, Draxil was readying one of his monster soldiers. "And remember, he killed your brother Gorgo. Now go, Heti." "With pleasure." A door in the side of the ship and Heti, a huge bird like monster, jumped from the ship. He flew faster than Riser could. He flew down and slammed into Riser, knocking him over. "Ultraman!" Sakura cried. "Get up, Ultraman!" "Sakura, as cool as this is, we need to get out of here." "Uh, right! Let's run!" The two sprinted off. However, before they could get ten feet away, Heti fired an energy ray from his mouth at Riser. Riser got up in time to dodge it, however it was now headed straight for Tatsuya and Sakura. Tatsuya looked back and saw this. He jumped into Sakura and pushed her out of the way. He also barely cleared the blast himself. However, he was still too close and was sent flying into a tree by the shock wave created by the blast. Tatsuya landed on the ground with a sickening thud and a loud crack rang out from his back. Tatsuya's spine had been broken. Riser saw this and thought to himself 'No! I can't let him die! Not after he saved the girl!' Riser knelt down and picked the limp body of Tatsuya up. He then used his power to absorb and fuse with Tatsuya, as he had heard of many Ultramen doing when on Earth. Once Riser and Tatsuya had fused, Tatsuya was healed by being exposed directly to Riser's power. Riser then tried to wake Tatsuya. "Wake up, human. Please, wake up." Tatsuya stirred. "Ugh." Tatsuya woke up and tried to stand up. When he opened his eyes, Tatsuya was surprised to see himself surround by seemingly endless light. "All this light…is this Heaven? Am I dead?" "No, your alive and your inside my mind." "Huh? Who said that?" "I did." "Who are you? Why can't I see you?" "Hold on. Let me try something." Riser concentrated on an image of himself and made it appear inside his mind. "Ultraman." Tatsuya said when he saw the image. "I'm inside your mind?" "Yes. I have merged with you. I saw your selfless heroism in saving that girl and the consequences of your actions. I couldn't let you die, so I saved you by merging with you. You and I are now one and the same. Are you alright with this?" "Why wouldn't I be? You saved my life. Not to mention the fact that I'm a fan of Ultraman and now I get to be him! This is awesome!… So, uh, now what?" "Now I believe we should take care of that monster." "Oh, yeah. Him. Stupid giant bird, almost killed my best friend. Yeah, let's take him down, Ultraman." "Very well. And by the way, my name is Riser." "Ultraman Riser, huh? Well, my name's Tatsuya Higurashi. Nice to know ya, Riser. Hey, can I have first crack at him?" "Be my guest." "Alright. Let's get him."

With his new ultraman form now under his control, Tatsuya charged Heti. He landed a solid punch and kick combination, which knocked Heti back. "Hey, you've got some pretty good moves." Riser said. "Heh, finally, all those karate classes I took are gonna pay off. Watch this!" Tatsuya kicked Heti in the stomach, causing him to bend over. He then hit the monster in the head with his knee.. This knocked Heti's head back up. Tatsuya caught Heti's head with a sideways chop. This combination knocked Heti over. "Hey, don't you have any of those special laser attacks?" Tatsuya asked Riser. "I can fire twin beams from my hands." "Good enough. Let's give it a shot. Uh, how do I do that?" "How about this? I'll handle the lasers, as you call them, and you handle hand to hand, since I'm not good at that. Deal?" "Deal. Now blast him!" "Right!" Riser charged his twin beams and fired them Heti. However, Heti rolled over and dodged the blasts. He then got to his feet and tackled Riser to the ground. "Darn it! He's got us pinned!" Tatsuya yelled. "Arg! Get off of me!" Riser yelled. Riser punched Heti in the face, gaining leverage. Then, Riser shoved Heti off of him.. Tatsuya then took back control. He jumped to his feet and stomped on Heti. He did this several times before Heti grabbed his foot and threw him off.. Heti climbed to his feet and then flew into the air. "You can fly right?" Tatsuya asked Riser. "Yes." "Then take to the skies, Riser!" Riser flew up into the air. "Alright. Now, let's blast him. Let's see. I've seen plenty of videos of ultra man doing this!" Tatsuya placed his fists on either side of Riser's timer crystal and charged up energy. He then folded his arms in an l shape and fired the blast. However, Heti dodged it. "Darn it. He dodged again." "Seems he's faster in the air than on land." Riser said. "Of course. He's a bird. We're in his element. We need to get him back on land. Let's go!" The duo charged Heti and, when they caught him, they tackled him back to earth. They then stomped and kicked at his wings. They eventually broke them. "Ag! You'll pay for that!" Heti yelled. "Holy crap! He talks!" Tatsuya yelled. "Don't be thrown, Tatsuya! Concentrate!" Riser said. "Right. Alright, what else can we throw at this guy? What else can you do, Riser?" "Well, I'm fairly new with these powers, to be honest. So, I'm not quite sure." "What? Oh, man, don't tell me you're a rookie." "Sorry." "Alright, let's use our imaginations. From what I've seen, you can control energy, right?" "Right." "All forms of energy?" "I think so. I've heard stories of other ultras manipulating forces like heat." "Heat! That gives me an idea. Maybe if I concentrate on it, it'll happen. Come on! Follow my lead!" Tatsuya once again placed his fists on either side of the timer crystal. He then concentrated on the idea of heat and fire as the energy built up. As he hoped, he was able to gather heat energy. He then concentrated it into his right fist and charged. At this moment, Heti charged as well. Before they could collide, Tatsuya unleashed his fiery fist on Heti. "Take this! Volcanic fist!" Tatsuya cried as he punched Heti. The fireball that had formed around Tatsuya's fist exploded upon impact and knocked Heti back a good distance. "Volcanic fist…I like it." Riser said. "I thought you would. Alright let's finish this guy off. And I've got an idea on how to do it. Can you make energy take a particular shape and make that shape spin?" "Uh, I think so." "Alright then. Once again, follow my lead." Tatsuya charged up the energy same as before, and then concentrated on the idea of a drill as the energy built up. Working together with Riser, Tatsuya was able to form an energy drill around his left hand. He then flew up and started spinning, while flying straight at Heti. With the power of the drill, Tatsuya and Riser bore straight through Heit, leaving a gaping hole in the monster. He then exploded. As he did, Tatsuya cried "Hyper Drill!" "Another nice one." Riser said. "Thanks. But, we're not done yet are we?" "No. That ship's probably full of monsters. Let's take it down!" "Right, take to the skies!" Riser flew up toward the ship and Tatsuya charged up energy. When they were within firing range, they unleashed the twin blasts again. The blasts tore giant holes through the ship. "Darn it! We must retreat to make repairs. Computer, inter-space gate now!" Draxil yelled. The computer did as commanded and opened a portal. The ship then flew into the portal at maximum speed. The portal closed before Riser and Tatsuya could catch up. "Darn it. They got away." Tatsuya yelled. "But they'll be back. I have something they want.." Riser said. "What?" "The power of the heart of my world." "How do you have that?" "I'll explain everything later. Right now, shouldn't you go check on your friend?" "Oh right. Change me back!"

Riser landed and changed back into Tatsuya. Tatsuya then ran to find Sakura. "Sakura! Sakura!" He yelled. "Tatsuya!" He heard from his left. Tatsuya looked to see Sakura come running towards him. She ran into him, throwing a tight hug on him. "Thank God, your alright. I got dust in my eyes when I landed and when I cleared them, you were gone. What happened to you?" "Oh, uh, the shock wave from the monster's blast threw me quite a ways away. Sorry it took me so long to find you." "It's okay. I'm just glad your alright." "Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, did you see the fight?" "Sure did. Ultraman was awesome. Too bad he disappeared. "Yeah, too bad. Well, come on. Let's get back to the bus. Mr. Seta's probably worried about us." "Right. Let's go." "As they walked, Tatsuya thought to himself. "I won't let any monsters hurt Sakura or anyone else. I'll protect this planet, no matter what. Because I am Ultraman!"


	3. Titan

Chapter 3

That night, Tatsuya sat in his room, soaking in everything that had happened that day. "I still can't believe it. I'm Ultraman." "Well, technically, we're Ultraman." Riser's voice said in Tatsuya's head. "Yeah, I know. I'm just saying, I'm the human half. Say, have any other Ultramen that have visited earth done what you did with me with other people? You know, the fusion?" "Practically all of them." "Cool, I hope I get to meet them. Maybe learn from them. You know, with me being new at this and all." "Well, even though your new, I'd say you did fine. You were fairly impressive against that monster. And your imagination spawned some pretty interesting attacks." "Well, thank you, Riser. You weren't bad either. Now then, enough patting ourselves on the back. You said that you'd explain everything about what's going on, so out with it." "Alright, I'll start at the beginning. I come from a place called the land of light, in the M78 Nebula. Normally, it's very peaceful. Ultramen live and train, for the day that they will be summoned to defend Earth and other parts of the universe from evil." "So, your home is sort of like a great big police station." "Well, not exactly, but it's one way of looking at it. Now then, let me tell you about myself. I was born the third biological son of the space garrison's supreme commander, Ultraman Ken. He's also known as Ultra father." "I've heard of him. He's your dad, huh? Cool. Hey, is Ultra mother your mom?" "Indeed she is. Her true name is Ultrawoman Marie. And she's very kind and sweet." "Well, yeah. I mean, moms are supposed to be that way." "No, she's that way to everyone." "Ah, one of those 'loves everybody' types. Yeah, my mom's the same way. I don't think she's go one bad word to say about anyone." "Seems you and I are more alike than we originally thought." "Yeah, seems so. Anyway, we're getting of track. Tell me the rest of the story. Oh, but first, you said you're the third biological son of Ultra father. Who are the others?" "You may have heard of them, you being a 'fan', whatever that means, of Ultraman and all. My brothers are Ultraman Mebius by blood, Ultraman Ace by adoption, and my oldest brother by blood is Ultraman Taro. 'sigh' Taro." "Huh? What's with the sigh? Did something happen to Taro?" "Yes, something terrible." "Well, what happened?" "Well, allow me tell you the entire story." "Go ahead. I'll try to be quiet till your done."

Riser began to tell the story. "Well, the day began like any other day. I was out training with Taro. We were right in the middle of training when the planetary alert went out. Apparently, there had been a mass break out at the interplanetary prison and all the monsters that had escaped and stolen an escape ship. The alert said they were headed for our planet. I figured, since the Ultramen were the ones who locked them up in the first place, they wanted revenge. Anyway, since the ship had the ability to create emergency inter-space gates, that meant that they could arrive any minute. And that's exactly what they did. They used the gate to jump to the land of light and began dropping themselves all over the place. Taro thought it was best to get me back to our father, so we headed over to the space garrison. No sooner had we gotten there than father told us that the plasma spark, the heart of our world, might be a target. So, father gave Taro a special set of gauntlets that could handle the spark and we headed to the tower where the spark was kept." "Um, quick question." "Alright." "Why would Taro need special gauntlets to handle the spark?" "Because the power of the spark is great and it can corrupt the mind of the unprepared. Even the slightest touch is supposed to drive someone insane. So, Taro needed those gauntlets to protect him from being corrupted. Anyways, we headed to the tower. Along the way, we joined up with Ultraman Tiga and Dyna. When we arrived at the tower, three powerful monsters bursts through the side wall of the tower and while father held them off, Taro, Tiga, Dyna and myself escaped with the spark. But, soon we were reduced to just me and Taro, since some monsters attacked us and Tiga and Dyna stayed behind to fight them." "Hey, where were Ace and Mebius this whole time? I mean, I'm not judging but, if my little sister, Setsuna, was in trouble, finding her would be priority one for me." "Well, I guess they were being held up by some monsters. Now, where was I? Oh, right. Well, Tiga and Dyna stayed behind and Taro and I took off with the spark. Along the way, Taro told me about a secret inter-space portal hidden beneath our healing bay and came up with the idea of taking and hiding the spark on Earth. Guess he thought the monsters wouldn't find out and wouldn't follow us to Earth." "But they did, somehow." "Yes. Anyways, we headed to the healing bay, running into the princess of our world, Princess Yullian. Once there, we rested for a moment. Taro gave me the spark and the gauntlets and asked Princess Yullian to give me the rest of the armor that the gauntlets came from, which she did. We then joined up with Ultraman Leo and later Zoffy and Jack and headed to the portal. However, two monsters somehow tracked us and came crashing through the ceiling. Everyone fought their hardest but the monsters were just too powerful. They took everyone down and Taro and I were all that was left again. They tried to take the spark but Taro fought back to protect the spark and me. And in the end, one of the monsters killed Taro." "Oh man. I'm so sorry, Riser. You don't have to go on if you don't want to." "No, I told you I'd tell everything. So, here's the last bit. Naturally, I was angered by the loss of Taro, so I tried to fight the monsters, but I was too weak. They threw me around like I was nothing. Finally, I decided, no matter what happened to me afterwards, that would absorb the power of the plasma spark and use it to defeat the monsters. And, when I tried it, the spark changed me." "Changed you how?" "Well, to be honest, I don't normally look the way I do now. I'm actually just a kid. The spark's power turned me into an adult and fused the armor I was wearing to me." "Whoa! Your actually just kid? Man, the spark's power must be amazing to change you that much. Hmm, I guess that would explain your lack of fighting experience." "Yes. Well, with the new powers I had, I defeated the monsters and, after saying my goodbyes to my fallen friends, I left for Earth, destroying the portal behind me. You know the rest." "Yeah, you came to earth, joined with me and we kicked that stupid bird's butt all over the place together. But, man, I'm sorry you've had it so rough, Riser." "Well, at least one good thing came out of it. I made a friend on Earth." "Yeah, you got a friend in me, buddy. Hey, um, I was just thinking, maybe you should change your name." "Change my name? Why?" "Well, in some of the TV shows I watch, when some one's on the run, they change their name to protect their loved ones. Who knows? Maybe your mom and dad were captured by the monsters and, if they found out that you're their son, they could torture them to get at you." "Oh no, you may be right, Tatsuya. But, should I call myself then?" "Hmm. What do you call a power so titanic? …Hey, that's it! We'll call ourselves Ultraman Titan." "Titan, huh? Hmm, I like it. Alright, then that settles that. But, please, Tatsuya, keep calling me Riser. I want my friends to call me Riser." "Don't worry, I will. Well, I guess it's time for bed. I've got school tomorrow."


	4. Warning

Chapter 4

The next day, Tatsuya stood outside his house, waiting for Sakura to join him. "So, what is school like here on Earth?" Riser's voice rang in Tatsuya's head. "About what you'd expect. We sit in class as the teachers lecture us on subjects like science, history and etcetera. Personally, I believe school is actually a cruel experiment conducted by adults to see if it's actually possible to kill someone with boredom and the only reason it hasn't ended yet is because they haven't succeeded yet." "Oh, be reasonable, Tatsuya. People wouldn't do something like that." "Some might, Riser. Not all people are good. A lot are, but not all." "Well, I know you, your family and that Sakura girl are good. I can sense it and I've seen it personally." "Well, thanks, I guess. Op, here comes Sakura now." "Right, I'll be quiet." Sakura came walking up. "Morning." "Morning, Sakura. Hey, look. Your on time this time." "Oh, shut up." Sakura said, giving Tatsuya a playful shove. She then started to fidget for some reason. "Um, hey, Tatsuya?" "Yeah?" "I never did thank you properly for yesterday. I mean, you saved my life. If you hadn't shoved me out of the way, that monster's attack could have killed me. I want to thank you so…" Sakura leaned in and kissed Tatuya's cheek. "S-Sakura." "Thanks, Tatsuya. I really appreciate it." "Uh, no problem. A-anytime." "Let's hope you don't have to protect me anymore. I don't want you to get hurt. I care about you too much." "Oh, if you only knew the truth, Sakura." Tatsuya thought. "Well, come on, let's go." "Right."

Much later, Tatsuya was getting ready to go to lunch when a friend of his came up. "Hey, Tatsuya." "Oh, hey, Ken. What's up?" "What's up? Didn't you see? Ultraman's back." "Oh, yeah. Of course I saw that. So, what did you think of the fight?" "I think that dumb bird got his butt handed to him." "Do you think there's anything Ultraman could improve with his fighting style?" "Improve? Man, what are you? His agent or something?" "Well, no, but, I was just thinking, if I ever got to meet him, maybe I could pass it along." "Well, maybe he could be a little faster on the recovery, you know what I mean I mean, it takes him a little too long to get back up after a monster knocks him over." "I see." "Hey, you know what I found the net last night?" "No, what?" "I found a website saying that Ultraman could assume human form and hide amongst us. That's how he always knows when we're in trouble." "Well, that sounds as plausible as any other theory." " Dang, Ken's so close to the truth." Tatsuya thought. "So, who do you think it is?" "Huh?" "Who do you think Ultraman is? I mean, if he really does assume human form, who is it?" "How would I know that?" "Well, I guess you got me there. You know who I think it is?" "Of course not. I'm not a mind reader." "I think it's a member of the military. I mean, if you were Ultraman, wouldn't you want your human form to have access to some weapons? You know, so that, I case you couldn't transform right away, you could still fight and protect everyone?" "Well, yeah, I guess. Yeah, that makes the most sense. But, um, just a thought here, what if it was a student?" "A student?" "Yeah. I mean, no one would suspect a student of being Ultraman, right? It's a pretty unassuming role, you got to admit." "Well, I guess you could be right. In that case, I'll keep my eyes peeled for any new, weird acting kids at school." "Oh, good going, Tatsuya." Tatsuya thought. "but, I still think it's a member of the military. Or, maybe even I-NAC." "I-NAC?" "Didn't you hear? It was on the news last night. They're developing a new division of the defense force. It's sort of like the old CREW Guys unit that helped out Ultraman Mebius. They call it I-NAC. It stands for International Neo Assault Crew. I-N-A-C, I-NAC. It's supposed to be on a trial run here in Japan, but once they prove themselves here, they'll go fully international." "Well, if it's just here in Japan, aren't they jumping the gun a bit by putting the international part in there?" "Yeah, I guess. But. You know the military. They want cool names for their stuff and I guess NAC wasn't cool enough on it's own." "Yeah, I guess not." "Well, I'm getting hungry. How about you?" "Yeah." "Well, let's go get something then." "Alright, let's go."

Meanwhile, on the monster's ship, a squid like creature, with spikes sticking out everywhere, approached Draxil. "Master Draxil." "What is it, Krasis?" "Let me go to Earth and challenge Ultraman. I'm no good at repairing things and so I've got nothing else to do. Plus, I want to see just how strong this 'hero' is." "Very well. The ship might not b able jump completely for a while, but It can open personal portals. But, remember, Krasis, if you lose, that's it for you." "Oh, I don't intend to lose." "Neither did Heti. Remember that." "Whatever, just open the portal." "Very well. Computer, open a personal, inter-space gate for Krasis. Destination, Earth." "Acknowledged. Krasis, prepare for transport." A gate opened in front of Krasis. "Catch you later." Krasis said before entering the portal.

Back on Earth, Tatsuya walked and chatted with Ken down the hall towards the lunch room. He happened to look out a window when he saw the sky warping out of shape. "Oh no. Not again. I need to change. I need an excuse." Tatsuya grabbed his stomach and put a look of pain on his face. "What's wrong, Tatsuya?" Ken asked. "Oh, man, something I had for breakfast must becoming back on me. My stomach's killing me. Sorry, but I got to get to the bathroom. See ya!" Tatsuya then ran off. "Riser, you saw that, right?" "Yes. There's another monster on the way, no doubt. We need to hurry up and transform." "There's no where private to do it around here, except the roof." "Then let's hurry there." Tatsuya ran to the roof. Just as he got there, Krasis appeared from the portal and crashed down. "Alright, let's trash old fish bait over there. How do I transform?" "Well, I heard of some Ultramen creating special items with their powers that their human forms could use to transform." "Then hurry up and give me something!" "Right." Riser concentrated and made miniature versions of his gauntlets appear on Tatsuya's wrists. "There. Gauntlets, just like mine. Use these." "Alright, Riser, I'm about do something. When I'm done, I want you to activate the transform me." "Got it. Just hurry." "Right. Heh, I loved doing this when I was a kid." Tatsuya stuck his arms out to his side, then folded them in front of him in a t shape before thrusting his right fist towards the sky. He then shouted "Titan!" Riser took that as his mark and activated the transformation. Golden light covered Tatsuya's body and then he shot up towards the sky. There was an explosion, similar to a fireworks explosion, in the same color as the light and then Ultraman land on the ground near the school. The kids watching from inside all cheered to see their hero arrive. Tatsuya wasted no time and charged Krasis. Krasis saw him and flung his tentacles at him. Tatsuya dodged the first swing, but caught the second on to the head. This knocked him over. "Got to get up faster." Tatsuya thought. He hurried to his feet and then charged up the volcanic fist as fast as he could. He shoved his fist into Krasis's face and exploded the fireball. This knocked the monster over. He then took to the skies and came down with punishing drop kick, which caught Krasis in the head just as he got back up. This knocked Krasis over once more. But, he had a plan. As Tatsuya and Riser landed, he shot a tentacle out and grabbed their foot. He then yanked them off their feet and dragged them over to him. As they tried to break free, he wrapped a tentacle around their neck. He started to squeeze and then revealed that he had electrical powers. He began to shock the giant hero. Tatsuya and Riser clawed and scratched, trying to break free. But, Krasis held strong. The shock took it's toll and the warning light on Titan's timer crystal began to flash. "That can't be good." Tatsuya said. "It means we're running out of time and energy. We have to break free before it's too late." "Right. Time to think on our feet, so to speak. Let's try a new move. Follow my lead, Riser." "Right." Tatsuya struggled to get his fists n either side of the timer, but managed to do so and charged up energy. He then focused it into Titan's hands and formed strong energy blades around those hands. He then used these blades to cut free. He then rolled backwards and kicked Krasis square in the stomach, pushing Krasis back some. This gave Titan room to get back. "What do you call those?" Riser asked. "How about the Titan Sabers.?" "That'll work" "Alright, now, let's get him." Tatsuya said. He then ran forward and grabbed Krasis's remaining tentacles and wrapped them around the monster's body. He then pulled them tight.. "He likes putting the squeeze on people, well, let's see how he likes a taste of his medicine." Tatsuya said. Tatsuya then jumped into the air and kicked Krasis several times from in the air. Krasis tried to grab Titan, but every time he tried, Tatsuya and Riser would blast his tentacles back. This left Krasis with one last option. He opened his mouth and fire a fast moving blast of pure electricity. "Shield!" Tatsuya cried. This time, Riser formed the energy and then the shield. The shield blocked the attack. Riser then folded his arms in an L shape and fired a beam straight down Krasis's throat. "There, that should stop any more electrical breath attacks." He said. He then noticed the that the timer was blinking faster. "Tatsuya, we need to end this, now!" "Right. Time for our finisher." "The Hyper Drill?" "It's like you read my mind. Let's do it." The heroes placed their fists on either side of the timer and charged energy. They then formed the drill and came flying at Krasis. "No!" Krasis yelled. He tried to block it, but the drill tore through his tentacles and then through him. Titan landed on the other side of the monster just as he exploded. "Alright! We did it!" Tatsuya yelled. They then heard the cheers of the kids from the school. They gave the thumbs up to the kids. They then saw a chopper flying towards them. "Hey, that's channel 9. That's my dad's news chopper." Tatsuya said. Sure enough, when the chopper got close, Mr. Higurashi leaned out the side. "Ultraman! Not sure if you can talk but, if you can, can we get a word?" He yelled to the giant hero. "Can we talk to them, Tatsuya?" "Sure. Let me use your voice." "Okay." "All I have to say is that I am Ultraman Titan and I will protect this city from any threat. So rest easy, for I will never accept defeat. Well, be seeing you." Titan then flew off. He disappeared over the school and Tatsuya reappeared on the ground. "Man, that was cool. I hope dad got that. So, what's with that red light, Riser?" "It's a warning. You see, when an Ultraman is getting low on energy, that light will begin to flash." "I see. Guess we'll have to watch that. Alright, let's get back to school."


	5. Speed

Chapter 5

That night, Tatsuya sat in his room, talking to Riser. Riser had taken the gauntlets back. "Okay, Riser. Explain how this warning light works, in full." "Well, like I said, it serves as a warning to the Ultraman. It tells him, or in the case of Ultrawomen, her, when they are running out of energy. Now, this loss of energy can happen two ways. One, it can happen naturally. You Earth's atmosphere is inhospitable to Ultramen. It actually drains an Ultra's power just to be standing around, outside of human form. That's why a human form is necessary. It allows an Ultra to have somewhere to go where they'll be protected from the atmosphere and can recharge." "So, basically, me, and every human host before me, serves as a living shield for our Ultraman." "Well, to put it bluntly, yes." "Well, glad to know I have some purpose." "Oh, don't be like that, Tatsuya. If it weren't you, Ultraman Titan couldn't fight. Remember, you're the one with the fighting experience and that crazy imagination." "Well, okay. So, what's the other way the energy drains?" "The way you saw today. From battle. Either from extended periods of battle or from taking too much damage." "So, it's just like getting tired for us humans." "Exactly. Ultramen my have lots of power, but we can get tired just the same as anyone else." "I see. Um, hey, I just thought of something." "What's that?" "Well, you said, in your own words, that merely touching the Plasma spark would drive someone insane. So, how were you able to absorb it's power without being affected, other than transforming into an adult? Why'd that happen instead of the corruption? There's not some delayed reaction or side effect we need to worry about, is there?" "Well, I don't think so. I mean, it's never been done before, but I don't think so. See, I think that armor I talked about had something to do with it. Taro said that the gauntlets funneled the energy of the spark away from him and that protected him. But, maybe when united with the rest of the armor, they actually safely funnel energy into the Ultraman wearing the armor." "Hmm, well, I have heard of things functioning differently as a set, maybe that armor is the same way." "Yeah maybe." "Hey, you said yeah. Guess I'm starting to rub off on you. I say yeah a lot." "Yes you do. Hmm, say, Tatsuya?" "Yeah?" "I was wondering when do you not have school?" "I go to school Monday through Saturday and I have Sunday off. And tomorrow's Sunday." "So you have the day off tomorrow." "Yeah, why?" "There's someone I want to try to find." "Who's that?" "Well, you see, before Taro died, he told me to find someone here on Earth. He was really specific, so I'm guessing that it was his human form when he was here on Earth. He said that he should help me with my mission of protecting the spark." "Alright, what's the name? Who knows? Maybe he lives in town." "The name was Kotaro Higashi." "You've got to be kidding me." "What?" "Kotaro Higashi? Man, that's my school's headmaster's name." "Well, that's convenient. Can we meet with him?" "Um, I guess so. Never would've pegged him to be a host, though. Then again, I guess no one would peg me either. Alright, let's go look up his number in the phone book."

Tatsuya went down stairs. "Hey, mom, where's the phone book? I need to make a call." "In the kitchen, dear." Mrs. Higurashi replied, without looking up from the TV. "Hey, Tatsuya, check out dad's news report. It's about Ultraman." Setsuna, Tatsuya's little sister, said from her seat next to their mother. Tatsuya looked and saw Titan's earlier interview with his father. "So he did get it. That's great." Tatsuya thought. Tatsuya then walked into the kitchen and picked the phone book up off the table. Tatsuya flipped through the pages until he found his principal's number. "Alright, here we go." Tatsuya dialed the number. He waited nervously for Mr. Higashi to pick up. He had never spoken to his principal before and now he was about to talk to him about, of all things, Ultraman. He wondered if he would think he was nuts. Soon, Mr. Higashi picked up. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr. Higashi?" "Yes?" "Hello, sir. My name's Tatsuya Higurashi. I'm a student at your school." "Ah, Tatsuya. What can I do for you, my boy?" "Um, I want to talk to you about something." "And what's that?" Tatsuya leaned around the corner and looked at his mother and sister. They were absorbed in a news report and the TV was loud. He was sure they couldn't hear him. "I want to talk to you about Ultraman." "Ultraman? What? Do you want me to join a fan club or something?" "No, sir. I, I know you were Ultraman Taro." There was a long pause. Tatsuya figured that Mr. Higurashi was thinking about what to say. "Listen, sir, I know it may come as a surprise, but it's okay. Cause I'm a host too. I'm the host of the new Ultraman. I'm Ultraman Titan." "I, I don't know what to say." "Listen sir, I know it's a lot to absorb and it might be hard to believe, but you have my word, it's absolutely true. And, if at all possible, I'd like to meet with you. There's some things I'd like to discuss with you about being Ultraman." "I see. You want me to show you the ropes." "Amongst, other things. Please sir, you're the only one I can count on." "Alright, alright. Meet me in the park tomorrow around two." "Yes sir. Thank you sir. Good night." "Good night." Tatsuya hung up the phone. "Alright, let's go to bed, Riser. We've got a big day tomorrow." "Right."

The next day Tatsuya met Mr. Higurashi in the park. "Alright, before we get started, prove to me that your who you say." "Right. Riser." "Right." "Riser?" Mr. Higurashi said. "I'll explain in a minute." Tatsuya stuck his arms out his sides and Riser made the gauntlets appear just like yesterday. "See?" Tatsuya asked. "No doubt. Those were created by the light. So, your really Titan." "Yes sir." "Alright, so tell me, how'd you find out about me?" "My Ultraman told me. You see, he's Taro's little brother." "Taro's little brother?" "Yes sir. His true name is Riser. Titan is an assumed name." "Why the assumed name?" "Well, you see…" "Tatsuya, allow me." "Alright, Riser. Can you talk through me?" "I think so Let's try it." Riser concentrated and made Tatsuya's eyes glow the same color as Ultraman's, indicating that he was in charge now. "Hello, sir. My name is Riser. It's nice to meet the host of my brother Taro." "Uh, it's nice to meet you too, Riser. I must say, you've got an interesting relationship with Tatsuya. I never even knew about what Taro did until after the fact, but Tatsuya seems to know everything that goes on." "Well, I guess I could block it out for him, but he seems to want to know what goes on, so I don't block it out." "I see. So, what's with the assumed name?" "well, allow me to tell you the whole story." And riser did just that. "I can't believe it. Taro's dead?" "Yes, unfortunately. So, now you see why we need your help." "But, I severed my ties with the Ultra community. And with Taro dead, I can no longer transform. So, what good am I to you?" "Please, sir. Taro had faith that you'd be able to help some how." "Hmm, well, I do know a few of the Ultramen that hiding here on Earth. Maybe I could introduce them to you. Maybe they could help you more than me." "Oh, that would be great. What do you think, Tatsuya?" Tatsuya took back over. "That sounds great to me. I welcome the chance to meet other Ultras." "Alright then, when I get home, I'll make some calls. Now, is there anything else I can do?" "Well, there s one thing." "What's that?" "Fight me." "What?" "Fight me and tell me how I can improve my fighting style?" "Very well. Lets begin." Tatsuya ran at Mr. Higurashi and fired a punch. Mr. Higurashi and blocked it and fired a punch of his own. Tatsuya dodged and continued the fight. Minutes later, Mr. Higurashi called the fight off. "That's enough. I've seen what I needed to." "Well?" "Well, You certainly have plenty of spirit. That's good. But, while your attacks have the right amount of power, you're a little slow on the reaction time." "I figured as much. I guess I have to get faster." "Indeed you do."

Meanwhile, on the monsters' ship, Draxil was barking order to Tyros." "Tyros, go fetch me Sirius." "Yes, sir, but, um, why?" "I plan on wearing Ultraman down by sending one monster after another at him." "But, what if he beats them all, like he did Heti and Krasis?" "Then they didn't deserve a place in my final plan." "Uh, right then. I'll go get Sirius." Tyros flew off and soon returned with the monster known as Sirius. Sirius was light looking monster, resembling an ugly dog, but with a long, lion like mane. "You called?" Sirius asked. "I want you to go to Earth and challenge Ultraman." "No thanks, I don't want to die like Heti and Krasis did." "Oh, Sirius, with your speed, you could run circles around Ultraman. Don't tell me your afraid of a slow poke like him." "I'm not afraid of anything!" "Then prove it." "I will. Computer, send me to Earth, now!" "Acknowledged. Opening inter-space gate now." The portal opened and Sirius stepped through. "See, Tyros, that's how you run this ship. Know your subjects and know their weaknesses. I knew Sirius's pride was his weakness. Now, let's see what he can do."

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Tatsuya continued to talk to Mr. Higurashi. He then noticed the sky warping. "Uh oh." "What is it?" "Look, the sky's warping out of shape. That means a monster's coming." "Well, then, you'd better get ready then. Show me what your made of, Tatsuya." "Right." Tatsuya stepped away from Mr. Higurashi and shot his arms out to his sides. He then repeated his arm movements from yesterday. When e shot his fist towards the sky, he yelled 'Titan.' The golden light covered Tatsuya's body once again and he shot towards the sky. There was explosion and Ultraman came crashing down. He then turned to face the warping sky. Just as he did, Sirius appeared from the portal and touched down. Tatsuya raced to the attack. He threw a mighty punch at Sirius, but Sirius dodged it. He then began to show his speed. He ran circles around Titan and slashed him with his claws at every opportunity. "Come on, Tatsuya! Show your speed! I know you've got it in you!" Mr. Higurashi yelled. Tatsuya heard him and tried desperately to catch Sirius. But, it was to no avail. He kept taking punishing slashes, and after a minute of this, the color timer began blinking red. "Dang it. He's too fast.!" Tatsuya said. "We need to get faster. Oh, if only we could change into a speed form like Tiga or Dyna could." Riser said. "Hey, maybe we can. Let's concentrate on the idea of speed and transforming." The two did just that and when they had the idea at strong as they could in their minds, they thrust their fists downward and transformed. All the red on Titan's suit turned blue and Riser and Tatsuya felt the body get lighter. "Hey, it worked!" Riser yelled. "Alright, let's put this speed form to use." They threw a fast punch out and caught Sirius in the side of the head. They then began to run circles around Sirius, returning everything he had dished out. When they stopped, they had him confused. "I don't get it, I'm supposed to be the fastest." Sirius said. "Yeah, you wish. Let's show him who's the fastest, Riser." "Right." The two heroes had Titan throw multiple punches into Sirius's face and then into his stomach. This left the monster dizzy. "Alright, let's finish this. Time for a new move. Ultraman always uses a different finisher move in his different forms. So, here's ours." Tatsuya placed Titan's fists on either side of the color timer and charged energy. He then crossed his arms in an x shape and fired an x shaped beam. The beam tore through Sirius and left an x shaped hole in Sirius. Sirius managed to say one thing before he exploded. "Curse you, Draxil!" Once the battle was over, Titan looked down to Mr. Higurashi. Mr. Higurashi gave the thumbs up and Titan nodded. "Tomorrow, I'll introduce you to an old Ultraman, so go home and rest!" Mr. Higurashi yelled. Titan nodded again then flew off towards Tatsuya's house. "So, he figured out how change forms. Good for him. I just hope he doesn't need to rely on the form changing to much. Well, I promised I'd call them for him, so I'd better get home."


	6. INAC

Chapter 6

The next day, Tatsuya sat at lunch with Ken and Sakura. "So, what'd you guys think of Ultraman yesterday?" Tatsuya asked his friends. "Well, I was surprised to see that monster move so fast, but Ultraman was even more impressive with that new, blue mode of his." Sakura said. "Yeah, changing colors made him faster and then wailed on that monster. Did you see the look on that monster's face when he realized that Ultraman was faster than him? Priceless." Ken said. "Yeah, it sure was. Hey, since that blue form of Ultraman's is so fast, maybe we should call that his speed form. What do you guys think?" Tatsuya asked. "Sounds good to me." Ken said. Sakura nodded. Suddenly, there was an announcement. "Attention, students. Would Tatsuya Higurashi please come to the office? I repeat, would Tatsuya Higurashi please come to the office?" "Ooo. What'd ya do, Tatsuya?" Ken asked. "I didn't do anything." "Well, you'd better see what they want, Tatsuya." Sakura said. "Right." Tatsuya picked up his plate and walked over to the trash can. He dumped the trash in the can and then headed for the office.

As Tatsuya walked to the office, he wondered what the office could want him. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Mr. Higashi was calling him to meet another Ultraman. His questions were soon answered. As he approached the office, he saw Mr. Higashi standing outside the door to the office. Standing next to him was an older man, wearing a large, tan colored coat which covered much of his others clothes. "Ah, here he is now." Mr. Higashi said. "Tatsuya, This is Mr. Shin Hayata. He'll be taking over your training." "Oh, nice to meet you, Mr. Hayata." Tatsuya, giving a polite bow. Mr. Hayata returned the bow. "It's nice to meet you too, Tatsuya. So, I hear you want to learn how to fight?" "Yes, sir." "Well then, let's go someplace quieter where we can begin your training." "The best place to do anything quietly is the roof." Mr. Higashi said. "Very well. We'll go there. Come on along, Tatsuya." "Right. Um, by the way, thanks for this, Mr. Higashi. I know you'd rather not get involved, but still, thanks." "Think nothing of it, Tatsuya. I may have cut off ties with the community, but I can't let a young one like yourself go into something like this unprepared. Just consider it me doing my part to protect everything." Tatsuya nodded. "Oh, and by the way, Tatsuya. Mr. Hayata isn't the only one I called. He's just the one who lives closest and got here first. I don't know when the others will get here, but you'll meet them eventually." "Got it. Thanks. Alright, let's go, Mr. Hayata." Mr. Hayata nodded. Tatsuya waved goodbye to Mr. Higashi and walked off with Mr. Hayata.

The two soon reached the roof. "Alright, first, let's take care of any questions you may have." Mr. Hayata said. "Okay, first, tell me. Which Ultraman are you?" Mr. Hayata held up one finger and said 'The first.' "The first? You mean, the first one to visit Earth?" Mr. Hayata nodded. "Whoa, your legendary! What are you doing on Earth?" "My companions and I once sealed an very powerful monster behind a barrier here on Earth. We were here to maintain it. I heard about the attack on the land of light from Higashi. Trust me, if we'd been there, we would've fought and died for our home." Tatsuya nodded. "Anything else?" "Well, if your expecting me to tell you anything about being the human half of Ultraman, I have to say that I unfortunately don't have anything to tell you that you probably don't already know. Transform in private, protect the innocent, never involve your friends unless absolutely necessary. That's what I can tell you and you probably already know that." Tatsuya nodded and said "Well, how about being the ultra half?" "Well, the only thing I can critique there is your fighting style. I've watched your battles on the news. So far, you've done well. I saw your need for speed, but you took care of that yesterday, when you unlocked your new speed form. And that's good. Now, all I need is to see you fight in person and I can tell you what else your lacking. So, shall we?" "You mean, you want to fight me?" Mr. Hayata said nothing. He simply reached into his coat and pulled out an object that looked like a large pen. He pointed the object towards the sky and there was a bright flash of light. When the light faded, the original Ultraman stood before Tatsuya, at human height. "Whoa! Cool. So, I guess your serious then." Ultraman nodded. "Alright, but, uh, how'd you shrink down to human size?" "Just concentrate on the idea of being human sized when you transform. That should do just fine." "Alright then, here goes. Riser." "Right." Riser made the gauntlets appear again. Tatsuya shot his arms out to his sides and then crossed them in front of himself in a t shape. He then shot his fist towards the sky and called out 'Titan!' He then concentrated on the idea of being human sized. The golden light from before cover Tatsuya. It lingered for a moment and then faded away. When it did, Ultraman Titan stood in Tatsuya's place. "Alright, let's begin." Ultraman said. Tatsuya dug Titan's feet into the roof a bit and then kicked off the ground. He took the skies and came crashing down with an ax kick. Ultraman blocked the attack and grabbed Titan's foot. He then swung Titan threw the air and threw him away. Tatsuya used Titan's power of flight to stop himself in the air and came flying back at Ultraman. He threw a series of powerful punches at Ultraman. Ultraman blocked the best he could, but found himself being pushed back. So, he jumped off the roof and continued the battle in the air. The two Ultramen continued on for a short while before both of their warning lights began to flash. Both Ultramen looked at each other and nodded. They landed back on the roof and reverted to their human forms. Riser called back the gauntlets. "Well?" Tatsuya asked. "All in all, not bad. But, you have a tendency to linger a bit after an attack. An enemy could use this as an opening for an attack. Watch that. Try to make your attacks be in a series. Never stop. Plan your next move as you make your last one. Also, you telegraph some of your punches. I'd watch that as well." "Okay, anything else?" "Yes, I'd watch how much you use your special forms. I've heard from Tiga and Dyna that using these forms may concentrate your energy more for either speed or strength, but there are also trade offs. First, when you use speed form, you lose power that would normally go to giving you strength. The opposite is true for your strength form, when you unlock. You trade speed for power. There is also one last trade off. Using these forms burns through your energy supply faster. So, use your forms only when you need them." "Right, got it. Now, then, um, I'd like to talk about you." 'Me? Why?' "Well, see, I'm a fan of Ultraman, so I'd like to learn all I can about all the Ultramen I meet." "I see. Very well. Ask whatever you like."

Meanwhile, on the monster's ship, Draxil had ordered Tyros to fetch a monster names Drago. Drago was also a lizard like monster. He had short legs and long arms, along with a large shell surrounding his main body. This shell served as armor. "What do you want, Draxil?" Drago asked as he came into the control room. "I want you to go Earth and fight Ultraman. With your armor and your strength, you should be able to handle him." "Alright, but you'd better make it worth my while." "Very well. I promise, when you return, I'll have a mountain of food ready for you. How's that? I know how much you like to eat." "Sounds good. Let's do it. Computer, you know what to do." "Opening personal inter-space gate to Earth now." The gate opened and Drago stepped through.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Tatsuya was asking Mr. Hayata many different questions about Ultraman. Suddenly, he saw the sky warping out of shape. "it's happening again. Riser, we'd better get ready." "Right." Mr. Hayata looked to see what Tatsuya was talking about. "Ah, I see. An inter-space gate is about to open. So that's how they get here. Very well, Tatsuya, take what I've told you and take care of this monster." "Yes, sir!" Riser produced the gauntlets again and Tatsuya went through the arm movements. He shouted Titan when he finished and was covered in the golden light. He then shot towards the sky. There was an explosion and Ultraman Titan came down. Mr. Hayata could hear the roar of the students in the school below as they gawked at Ultraman. "Let's see how quick you learn, Tatsuya." The sky opened and Drago appeared and touched down. Titan rushed Drago and punched his shell as hard as he could. But, he found that he couldn't even scratched it. He punched it several times, as hard as he could. But it was still to no avail. Suddenly, Drago swung on his arms at Titan and swatted him away. He then brought his other arm and punched Titan back to the ground as he tried to get up. Drago then began to dig his fist into Titan's stomach.

Meanwhile, at base outside of the city, a group of four, two men and two women, were scrambling to get to their special ships. Meanwhile, an alarm was blaring. "I-NAC fighters 1 through 4 scramble." A man's voice said over the loud speakers. "What does he think we're doing?" One of the men asked. "Oh, be quite, Kenichi." One of the women said. "Hey, remember who your flying with, Hitomi." "Ugh, don't remind me. Captain Iyase, are you sure we can't switch partners?" Hitomi asked the woman in front of her. "No time, Hitomi. Ultraman's already engaged the monster, so we need to get our butts out there to back him up ASAP. Ryu, let's go." The captain said to the man next to her. "Yes, ma'am." The four fighter pilots ran to their jets. They boarded quickly and took flight. They flew to Ultraman's location and fired their ships' basic beams at the monster's hands. This distracted Drago long enough for Titan to shove Drago's fist off of him. He then got up and punched at the only opening in the shell he could find, a hole cut in the shell for Drago to see out of. However, the opening was too small and Titan's fist got stuck. Drago took this opportunity to grab Titan and throw him up into the air. He then punched him back into the ground. Titan landed with a heavy thud. His warning light began to flash. "Come, Tatsuya. Hang in there." Mr. Hayata said. "Help Ultraman!" Captain Iyase yelled. "Roger!" Came Kenichi's voice came over the intercom. The two jets fly towards Drago and fired their beams at his eyes. This distracted Drago long enough for Titan to get up. "We need more power if we're ever going to get through that shell." Tatsuya said. "Well, Ultraman said that we should only use our special forms when we have to. I think this counts as a 'have to' moment." "Right. But speed form's not strong enough. Which means it's time for strength form. Quick, while they've got him distracted, concentrate on the idea of getting stronger and then transform." "Right." The two heroes did just that and then punched their left hand with their right fist. They then transformed. All of the blue on Titan's suit turned red. Tatsuya then had Titan run forward and land a series of punches at the shell around the eye hole. Each blow caused the shell to crack a little bit. Finally, Drag threw a punch at Titan, but Titan grabbed it. He then forced Drago's arm dowards and then brought his foot up. He then kicked Drago's arm deep into the ground. He then grabbed the cracked shell around the eyes and ripped it off, exposing Drago's face. "Boy, he's an ugly sucker!" Tatsuya said. Just then, Drago threw a punch with his free arm but Titan cught the punch again. He then twisted Drago's arm around and broke it. He then did a series of back flips until he was lined up with I-NAC ships. "You guys with I-NAC?" Tatsuya asked with Riser's voice. Captain Iyase picked up the speaker and said 'Yes, we are. Pleasure to meet you, Titan." "Nice to meet you too. Thanks for the assist. Now, let's finish this." "Yes, sir!" The pilots charged up their ships' strongest attacks. When they were fully charged, they unleashed twin torrents of energy from each ship. All four beams blasted Drago in the face. "Our turn, Riser." "Right. Time for a new move?" "Yup. And this time, I'm thinking electricity." Tatsuya placed Titan's fists on either side of the color timer and charged energy. As he did, he concentrated on the idea of electricity. To his delight, he managed to charge up a massive amount of electrical energy. He then pulled his arms back and then thrust them forward. He then fired the beam. "Take this! Pulverizing Current!" Tatsuya yelled. The electrical blast tore through Drago's head and exited out the back of his shell. He promptly exploded. Titan looked to the fighter pilots. They each gave him the thumbs up and he returned it. He then took off and flew away. "Not bad, Tatsuya." Mr. Hayata said. Meanwhile, a woman stood on the roof of a building in town. She had been watching the battle. She wore a strange silver bangle. "Well done, Riser."


	7. Creativity

Chapter 7

The next day, Tatsuya walked the halls with Sakura. They were heading to history, their last class before lunch. "So, what did they want you in the office for yesterday?" Sakura asked. "Oh, uh, they had a bunch of new student teachers from the college nearby and they randomly selected me to be their test student." "Nice lie, Tatsuya." Riser's voice rang in Tatsuya's head. Tatsuya repressed a smile. "How many student teachers do they have you line up for?" "I don't know? Four, five maybe." "That's a lot of teachers just for one student." "Yeah, but I'm up for it." Sakura snickered. "What's so funny?" "Oh, I just remembered what happened the first time you ever said 'yeah, but I'm up for it' to me. You remember, don't you, Tatsuya? The incident with Shin?" "Oh, yeah. That." Back when Tatsuya and Sakura were in elementary school, there had been a school bully named Shin. He picked on weaker kids constantly. This grated on Tatsuya's nerves. Finally, Tatsuya had decided to put a stop to Shin's bullying. He challenged Shin to fight. Shin was shocked that somebody was actually standing up to him, but accepted the challenge. Afraid that her friend would get hurt, Sakura tried to talk Tatsuya out of the fight. She had said 'you know you'll get hurt' and he had said 'yeah, but I'm up for it.' Realizing that she couldn't sway Tatsuya, Sakura stood by his decision and ended up serving as his cheerleader during the fight. True to Sakura's words, Tatsuya did get hurt by Shin, but he also managed to hold his own against the much bigger Shin. In the final seconds of the fight, Tatsuya had jumped up and planted his foot into the left side of Shin's face. This would later give Shin the mother of all black eyes and would land Tatsuya in a week's worth of detention, but for the moment, it had ended the battle. After the fight was over, the children applauded Tatsuya for his bravery and Shin, possibly fearing another run in with Tatsuya, never picked on another kid. Tatsuya rubbed his shoulder as he remembered all of this. "You know, my shoulder still hurts every time I think about that Why'd Shin have to try that stupid wrestling submission move on me?" "The same reason you kicked him in the face, he was trying to win." "Yeah, I guess." "You know, Tatsuya, I've never known you to not be up for a fight." "Guess it's just my nature." "I guess so." The two continued to walk. But soon, they found themselves heading straight for Mr. Higashi. "Ah, Tatsuya, I was hoping I'd run into you. Your next teacher is here. He'll meet with you at lunch. Also, Mr. Hayata will be there again, to watch." "Okay, but, uh, would anyone mind if I got some lunch fist? I'm kind of hungry." "No, not at all. Go right ahead. Just come to the office when your done."

After eating lunch with Ken and Sakura, Tatsuya headed to the office. Waiting for him there was Mr. Higashi, Mr. Hayata and a man wearing a cowboy get up. Tatsuya thought that this must be his new teacher. "Ah, there he is. Did you have a good lunch, Tatsuya?" Mr. Higashi asked. "Yeah, it was good." "Good, because your going to need your strength for this one. Tatsuya, this is Mr. Masaki Kazamori and he's just informed me that he wants to see how you handle multiple opponents. So, you'll be dealing with both Mr. Kazamori and Mr. Hayata." "I see. Well, this'll be interesting." "indeed it will. Oh, but this'll be the last one. Mr. Kazamori informed me that the other two returned home to take care of some business." "Who were the other two?" "Ace and Jack." "Oh no." Riser said. "What's wrong, Riser?" Tatsuya asked. "It's about, Jack. I, I saw him fall." "Oh, I see. Um, sirs, I'm afraid I have bad news. Riser just told me that Jack was defeated." "What? Higashi didn't tell me that!" Mr. Hayata said. "He said he saw him fall." "I see. What about Ace?" "No idea." Riser said. "Riser said that he has no idea." "I see…. I hope the barrier holds without them." "You don't sound too sad about losing them! What's wrong with you? They were your friends! I know I'd be sad if I lost my friends! So, what makes you different?" "We are sad, Tatsuya. We'd have to be heartless not to be. It's just, right now, we must focus on your training. Jack and Ace, especially Ace, would want it that way. Please, don't think poorly of us." Mr. Kazamori said. "Oh, I see. I'm sorry I snapped at you." "It's alright. Now then, in honor of Ace and Jack, and the other fallen, let us train. Where can we do that, Higashi?" Mr. Kazamori asked. "The roof." "I know the way. Follow me." Mr. Hayata said. Tatsuya waved goodbye to Mr. Higashi and followed his teachers. Along the way to the roof, Tatsuya felt the desire to ask a question. "Excuse me, sirs?" "What is it, Tatsuya?" Mr. Hayata asked. "I was wondering, how did Mr. Higashi meet you two?" "We once tried to get him to rejoin with Taro, so that we could have more allies on Earth, but he refused. He said he wanted to live as a human and nothing else. But, he said that he would help if necessary." "Which explains why he, reluctantly, decided to help me by introducing me to you." "That's right. Is there anything else?" "Yeah. Um, Mr. Kazamori, which Ultraman are you?" "I am known as Ultra Seven." "Ultra Seven…Oh! You're the one that could remove his head fin and through it at the monsters." "Is that all I'm known for?" "Of course not, it's just the first thing that came to mind. Wow, two of the all time greats are going to be teaching me. It's nice to know you, Mr. Kazamori, or should I say Ultra Seven?" "It's nice to you know you as well, Tatsuya, or do you prefer Titan?" The three laughed at Seven's comeback.

The trio soon reached the roof. Mr. Hayata and Mr. Kazamori put some space between themselves and Tatsuya. "Alright, before we begin, I have a question for Riser." Mr. Kazamori said. Tatsuya nodded and let Riser take over. Tatsuya's eyes glowed, indicating Riser's control. "I'll make it simple. Is my son okay? I know he's capable but, as his father, I must know. Did Zero escape the chaos?" "I'm not completely sure. But, I do remember father telling Taro that he had just left the planet before the chaos started. If he didn't come back to fight, I'm guessing he's okay. When this is all over, cousin, we'll have to go look for him." "Indeed. Thank you, Riser." Riser nodded. Tatsuya then took back control. "Wait, did I hear you right, Riser? Ultra Seven's your cousin?" "Yes. His mother and father are my aunt and uncle." "I see. Well, guess we're kind of related, huh, Mr. Kazamori?" "In a matter of speaking, yes." "Well, it's always nice to learn from family. Alright, let's get started." Riser made the gauntlets appear and Tatsuya went through the arm movements. "Titan!" Tatsuya was covered in the golden light and when it faded, he had transformed into Ultraman Titan. Mr. Hayata removed the pen like object from his coat and held it up. There was a flash of light and he became Ultraman. Mr. Kazamori then removed what a set of orange glasses from his coat and placed them against his eyes. "Duwah!" He cried and then transformed into Ultra Seven. "Let's do this!" Tatsuya, as Titan, cried. The two Ultramen promptly charged Titan. The hero braced himself and began blocking kick after kick and punch after punch. It was hard to block the attacks of two enemies. "Alright, time to go on the offensive, Riser." "Right." Titan began throwing mighty punches at Ultraman and Ultra Seven. The two did their best to block or dodge the attacks. Finally, Ultra Seven threw his head fin. Tatsuya saw it and had Titan dodge it. Then, an idea on how to bring the training to end popped into his head. He took flight and flew after the flying fin. When he saw that he wasn't going to be able to catch it in his current state, Tatsuya had Titan switch to speed form. Titan then flew so fast that he became a blur and eventually caught the fin. He then flew back at the other two ultra men. Ultraman tried to stop him by firing an energy ray, but titan was fast enough to dodge it. When he got close, Tatsuya charged up the volcanic fist. He stopped short of actually hitting them but he did have Seven's fin in his face and had the volcanic fist inches from striking Ultraman. "Stop, that's enough. Well done, Tatsuya. Nobodies ever used my own attack against before like that. That shows your creativity. It's good that you have that, because that's exactly what you need to deal with multiple enemies. Power and speed may fail you, but your imagination will never let you down." "Got it. Use creativity to handle multiple enemies. So, is that it for today?" "Yes." Tatsuya reverted to human form and Riser took back the gauntlets. "Good. Now, I've got some questions for you, Ultra Seven." Ultraman and Ultra Seven reverted back to human form. "Ultraman said this might happen, so go ahead. Ask away."

Meanwhile, on the monster's ship, a monster was coming to see Draxil. He was humanoid in appearance, but had a lion like head. "And you really think I'm the one for the job?" The monster asked. "Indeed I do, Nidus. With your multiplication power, you should be just what we need to beat Ultraman." "Well, if you think I can do it, I'll do it. But, I'm expecting my reward when I get back." "I'll have a pretty lady for you, don't worry." "Alright then. Computer, send me to Earth." "Acknowledged. Opening inter-space gate now." The portal opened and Nidus stepped through. "Everything is going according to plan." Draxil said.

Back on Earth, Tatsuya was enjoying talking with Ultra Seven. Suddenly, he saw the sky warping. "Here we go again, Riser. Get ready." "Right." Riser made the gauntlets appear again. Ultra Seven looked to see the disturbance in the sky. "I see. So that's how. Well, go on, Tatsuya. Take care of this." "Make us proud." Mr. Hayata said. Tatsuya nodded and then proceeded to transform into Ultraman Titan. He touched down just outside the school. The students inside noticed and rushed to the windows. "So where's the monster?" Ken asked from his classroom, knowing Ultraman wouldn't appear unless a monster was about to arrive. They wouldn't have long to wait. The portal opened in the sky and Nidus stepped out and crashed down to Earth. "I'm going to destroy and claim my lovely prize, Ultraman." Nidus said. "Yeah, go ahead and try!" Tatsuya yelled with Riser's voice. "Gladly." Nidus immediately showed his power and multiplied himself by four, with the original serving as number five. "What the?" "Get him!" The other four Nidus's attacked Titan. Tatsuya tried to play it just the same fighting as Ultraman and Ultra Seven. However, the monsters fought nothing like the ultra men. They double and even triple teamed Titan, throwing him around like a rag doll. The five soon formed a living circle and knocked Titan around. One Nidus would hit him and send him staggering into another one. This continued on for a few moments, until Titan's color timer began to flash red. The kids in the school began to yell. "Come on, Ultraman! You can take them!" Ken yelled. "Don't give up, Ultraman!" Sakura yelled. Their voices reached Tatsuya and stopped short of running into another Nidus. He punched that Nidus in the face, then kicked one that came up behind him. Titan then began to hold his own and he managed to fend off the Nidus monsters. But then, the original Nidus produced five more copies. The copies swarmed Titan. However, Titan broke free with his twin bursts of energy. Tatsuya then decided it was time to finish. He switched to speed mode. Just as he did, the Nidus circled him again. However, Tatsuya had Titan fly up and began flying around the circle of Nidus. As he did, he kicked each one in the chest with an energy charged kick. "Thunder kick!" Tatsuya as he struck down the last Nidus. He then flew up to finish the Nidus. He charged up the Titan sabers and flew down in a blur he sliced through the copies When he reached the original, he charged up the x shaped beam and fired it. "Giga beam!" Tatsuya cried, finally naming the attack. The blast tore through the original Nidus. Nidus managed to scream out Draxil's name before he exploded. Titan looked over to the kids at the school. They were cheering. Tatsuya had Titan give the thumbs up and then flew up and over the school. When he flew over the roof, he reverted, unseen except by Mr. Hayata and Mr. Kazamori, into his human form and touched down on the roof. "Well, did I do you proud?" "You did. You came up with a new technique right on the spot and dealt with the monsters. But, next time, try to do it faster." Mr. Kazamori said. "Yes sir. Hmm, you know, I think of heard that last thing that monster said before. What was it? Draxil? Is that it? Yeah, that was it. Now, where did I hear that?…oh, right, from another monster. He screamed right before he exploded too. Either of you know what Draxil is?" "Not off hand, but we'll do some research for you. Now, go on back to class." Mr. Hayata said. "Yes sir."


	8. Defend Sakura

Chapter 8

Two days later, Tatsuya was on edge. "It's been quiet, Riser." He said as he waited for Sakura to join him for their morning walk to school. "It's only been a day, Tatsuya. Even monsters take a break. But, I do admire your watchfulness." "Well, I am one half of a giant, monster-stomping, superhero. I kind of have to be on alert all the time. And the monsters taking a day off is just weird to me. Especially when they were attacking day after day before." "Well, the day I came to Earth and bonded with you, we did do a fair amount of damage to their ship. Maybe they took the day off to focus on repairing it." "Which means we could be facing a full scale invasion sometime soon." "Yeah, maybe. Which means we need all the training we can get from Seven and Ultraman." "Yeah, but we're not getting any today." "Why not?" "Today's a field trip. We're going to visit the I-NAC base. They invited the general public to come take a tour and my, or should I say our, school took them up on their offer. Didn't you listen to the teacher yesterday when I did?" "Actually, I was busy thinking about a certain fighting technique at the time." "Oh really? I'd love to hear about it." "Well, it's something that, originally, only Ultraman Leo had in his arsenal. It's similar to the volcanic fist, only this attack was a kick. The Leo kick. Anyway, Leo later taught it to Mebius and he put his own spin, literally, on it. Now, I once saw Mebius use the kick and I know how to do it, so I was wondering if we could add it to our arsenal?" "Sure, pal. Hey, you got to remember, Titan's as much you as he is me, if not more so. So, you've got a pretty good say so. So, if you want to add a new attack, go right ahead." "Well, I know I haven't been the one to come up with ay moves, so I didn't want to step on your toes, so to speak." "Eh, no worries. So, you want the Leo kick to be part of our arsenal? Well then, fine." "Thank you, Tatsuya. It means a lot to me to be able to use my brother's move." "I figured it would. But, you know we've got to do our own take on it." "That's fine. What's that going to be like?" "You just let me think of that." "Oh, okay." "Okay, here comes Sakura." "Right. I'll be quiet." Sakura came walking up. "Morning." "Morning, Sakura. So, you ready to go?" "Yup. Ready to see to I-NAC's base?" "As long as it gets me out of school for a while, I sure am. You know, Ken thinks that Ultraman can assume human form and he also thinks said human form might be a member of I-NAC." "Which means he'll probably be looking at all sorts of things he shouldn't, trying to find Ultraman." "Exactly. And it's our job as his friends to keep him out of trouble." "Right. You know, the only thing I really wonder is why Ultraman keeps appearing our school." "Well, maybe this Ultraman has a desire to protect kids more than anyone else." "Hmm, I didn't think of that. So he's got a Gamera thing going on. I see." "Wow." "What?" "All these years I've known you and I've never pegged you to watch Gamera." "What? They're good movies." "I know they are, I just never pegged you to watch any monster movies." "Well, I guess you can't know everything about your friends." "Guess not. Well, we've wasted enough time. Let's go." "Right."

Much later, Tatsuya and his friends were enjoying the tour. But, Tatsuya was wondering if they were ever going to meet any of the pilots. He really wanted to meet the pilots that helped Titan in person. He decided to ask the tour guide. "Excuse me, sir?" "Yes?" "Um, are we going to get to meet any of the pilots? I'd really like to meet the pilots who helped out Ultraman the other day." "Well, you see, those are some of our best pilots. As such, they need to be ready to mobilize at a moments notice. But, I'll see if can't swing something later, okay?" "Okay."

Meanwhile, on the monster's ship, Draxil had sent Tyros for one of his stronger warrior. Tyros soon returned with the monster. Though he was a monster, he looked more like a robot. His body was covered in metal and there were panels cover hidden weapons on his arms, legs and shoulders. His name was Mecanis. "Mecanis, your done with your part of the repairs, correct?" Draxil asked as soon as Mecanis entered the room. "That's right." "Well then, I want you to go to Earth and fight Ultraman. I know, with all your weapons, you should be able to defeat him. And I promise you, I'll get you a whole bunch of new weapons if you succeed." "Can I have any weapon I want?" "Sure." "Then I want a draxium hyper-cannon." "Those are very hard to get." "How badly do you want Ultraman dead?" "Very well, I'll get you a draxium hyper-cannon, but only if you succeed." "I always succeed." "We'll see about that. Are you ready to go?" "Yes." "Very well then. Computer, open a portal to Earth for Mecanis." "Opening portal now." The portal soon opened and Mecanis stepped through.

Seconds later, on Earth, the sky began to contort. The portal soon opened and Mecanis stepped out and touched down. As soon as he was noticed by I-NAC's radar, an alert went out. "Attention all personnel. A monster has made landfall. Fighters one through four scramble. All personnel with tours please lead tours to a designated safety area." "You heard the alert. Let's move it people." The tour guide told Tatsuya's class. The class followed the tour guide, but Tatsuya slipped away and ran outside. As she made her way to her fighter, Hitomi noticed Tatsuya running towards the monster. "What the? Is that one of those school kids? What the heck's he doing?" Hitomi then watched as the gauntlets appeared on Tatsuya's wrists and as he went through the arm movements. When the transformation ended, she saw Ultraman Titan standing in front of the base. "No way. That kid is…. Well, powers or no powers, there's no way I'm going to let someone that young fight a monster like that on his own. Hang on, kid. I'm coming to back you up." Hitomi then scrambled to her jet. Meanwhile, Sakura had noticed the Tatsuya was missing and slipped off to find him. She ended up getting lost and wandered around until she found herself outside. She looked up to see Ultraman locked in combat with the monster. She looked on in awe as Ultraman through several mighty punches into Mecanis's stomach. "Yeah! Get him Ultraman!" Sakura's words reached Titan's ears and Tatsuya heard her. He had Titan look down at Sakura. "Sakura! What is she doing there?" "Tatsuya, watch out!" Riser yelled. Tatsuya looked back just in time to catch a laser blast to the chest. This knocked Titan down. "Get up, Ultraman!" Sakura yelled. Tatsuya had Titan do just that. He then rushed in and tackled Mecanis to the ground. He then punched him several times before receiving a sucker punch to the jaw. This knocked him off of Mecanis. Both giants quickly got to their feet. "Come on! Take him down, Ultraman!" This time, Mecanis heard Sakura. "Man, her voice so annoying. Time to shut her up!" Mecanis opened his shoulder panels and fired twin blasts from his shoulder cannons at Sakura. Tatsuya saw this and, without thinking, flew into the path of the blasts. He stopped in front of Sakura and knelt down. He then proceeded to shield her from the blasts with Titan's body. The heavy blasts pushed Titan's upper body closer and closer to the ground. Mecanis enjoyed this, so he kept firing. The repeated blasts took their toll and Titan's color timer began flashing red. Finally, Mecanis fired a blast which hit Titan square in the back of the head. The shock was enough to knock Riser and Tatsuya unconscious and to the ground. Ultraman's head landed right in front of Sakura and the lights in his eyes faded..

Just then, the I-NAC fighters launched and took in the scene. "Ultraman's down! Attack!" Captain Iyase commanded. "Yes, ma'am!" Ryu and Kenichi yelled. Hitomi, meanwhile, looked down at Ultraman. "Come on, get up, kid. You've got to get up." She thought as she charged in to attack the monster. Sakura, meanwhile, stood in shock. "Ultraman…." She muttered. She then began yelling at Ultraman, trying to wake him. She tried and tried, but it didn't seem to work. Eventually, she got desperate enough to try something she had seen in a movie. She tried kissing Ultraman. The feel of something warm touching them, along with the yelling, was enough to wake the two heroes. Tatsuya awoke to see Sakura kissing Ultraman. "Whoa! She's kissing us!" Tatsuya yelled. "I see that, but we've got other things to think about. Let's go take care of that monster!" "Uh, right!" To Sakura's delight, Titan rose to his feet and rushed in to join the I-NAC fighters. As he did, rage stemming from Sakura being attacked rushed through Tatsuya. When he reached Mecanis, he punched and kicked wildly at the monster. He managed to knock the monster over. He then took the skies and came down with a burning scissor kick. "Leo kick!" Tatsuya yelled. The kick connected with Mecanis's right shoulder and destroyed the cannon built into it. The I-NAC fighters fired their main guns and destroyed the other shoulder cannon for good measure. Titan then fired his signature twin blasts and destroyed the cannons on the arms. He then charged up the hyper drill and charged with it. Mecanis tried to fire his remaining leg cannons, but the I-NAC fighters held the blasts off with their main guns. Titan then bore a hole through Mecanis and he promptly exploded. "That's what you get for trying to hurt my friends!" Tatsuya yelled. He then flew up and over the base. Titan disappeared as he flew over the back side of the base and Tatsuya reappeared, without the gauntlets, on the ground. He then ran back around the building to Sakura. "Sakura!" "Tatsuya! There you are! What happened to you?" "I got lost and ended up outside. But never mind that, are you okay?" "Yes, I'm fine. Thanks to Ultraman." Sakura then realized that she had kissed Ultraman. Her cheeks turned red. "Uh, Sakura, why's your face turning red?" "I just realized that, when Ultraman got knocked out while trying to protect me, I got so desperate, trying to wake him up, that I kissed him." "I-I see. Um, not sure what to say here. Um, let's head back to the others. We'll just tell them that we got separated from the group and ended up in another safety room." "Right. Let's go." Meanwhile, the mystery woman watched from a nearby hill. She had binoculars out. "I see. So that's Riser's human form."


	9. Official ally

Chapter 9

Tatsuya and Sakura ran to join their class. Eventually, they met up with them. "Where have you two been?" Mr. Seta yelled. " We got separated from the class and ended up in another part of the building. But don't worry, Mr. Seta. We got to a safety room." Tatsuya said. Sakura nodded in agreement. "Well, as long as you were safe, I guess everything's okay. But, if something like this ever happens again, try to stay with the group." "Yes sir." Both teenagers said. "Alright, class. Let's get out of here. I'm sure we've got more tour to see." The tour guide soon returned and continued the tour. Sakura mentioned to Tatsuya and Ken that it was impressive that things got back to normal so quickly. "Well, I'm sure you can thank Ultraman for that." Ken said. "Hey, I-NAC did their part." Tatsuya said, remembering I-NAC's assistance in the battle. "But, who destroyed the monster?" "Well, Ultraman, probably." "My point exactly. I don't think I-NAC's ready to handle a monster on their own. We still need Ultraman. And you know, now that I think about it, we always have needed Ultraman. I mean, every little helper squad has done their part, sure. But, it's always been the Ultraman of the time that did the real fighting against the monsters. Let's face the obvious fact. The world needs Ultraman." "I guess your right, but don't let any of these I-NAC people hear you." Sakura said. Just then, Hitomi rounded the corner. "Ah, there she is. Where's that boy that wanted to meet some of our best pilots?" The tour guide asked. "Right here." Tatsuya said. "Well, here's your chance. Come here." Tatsuya walked over to the guide. "Son, I'd like you to meet Hitomi Watanabe, one of our best pilots and one of the four pilots that helped Ultraman today." "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am." Tatsuya said, bowing. When Hitomi got a look at Tatsuya, she realized something. "It's him! He's the boy I saw transform into Ultraman!" "Uh, it's nice to meet you too. Hmm, say, do you think I could borrow him for a minute? I want to show him something." Hitomi asked Mr. Seta. "Well, I guess that would be okay. He's in your hands, Ms. Watanabe." "Alright then. Come with me." Tatsuya nodded and waved goodbye to his friends.

Tatsuya followed Hitomi down a nearby hallway. They walked for a little while before Hitomi stopped in front of a restroom. "Alright, in there should be fine. There's no cameras in there. We can talk in private in there." "Why do we need to talk in private?" "Because we have to talk about something important." "Oookay." Tatsuya then looked up at the restroom door. "Wait a second. This is a women's restroom!" "Oh, come on. Don't tell me your not man enough to go inside." "I-I'm man enough. But, what if there's somebody in there?" "Fine. I'll go look." Hitomi walked inside and came back out a moment later. "Alright, there's nobody inside. Now come on." "A-Alright." Tatsuya walked into the restroom with Hitomi. "Welcome to the ladies room, kid." Hitomi joked. "Now then, down to the matter at hand. Tell me, how long has it been?" "How long has what been?" "How long have you been Ultraman?" "What? Did you hit your head? There's no way I'm Ultraman." "Don't play dumb with me, kid. I saw you transform." Tatsuya was taken aback. He had thought that no one had seen him. He knew he was caught. "So, you really saw me?" "Yes. But, don't worry. I'm not going to tell anybody about your secret. I grew up watching superhero shows and I know how important it is for the hero to keep his secret identity. I just want you to know that, just like today and the other day, I, and the rest of I-NAC, have your back. You don't have to fight so hard, all on your own. Let us pick up the slack." "But, I…" "Look, I know you want to keep everyone safe, but your only one guy. Albeit, an ultra guy, but still just one guy. Please, kid. Just let us take up whatever slack there might be." "Well, since you've got access to some pretty sweet weapons, I guess it would be okay." "Thanks, kid." "Stop calling me kid. My name is Tatsuya." "Alright, thanks, Tatsuya. By the way, since we're allies and all, you can just call me Hitomi." "But…" "I know, I know. Honorifics and all that. But, I gave you permission to use my given name freely, so go ahead." "Alright. Let's fight together and end this threat to the Earth, Hitomi." Tatsuya said, extending his hand. Hitomi shook it while saying 'yeah, let's." Hitomi then looked down at her watch. "Well, I guess it's about time for you to get back. Come on. Let's go." "Right." The two headed back to the class. As they walked back, Hitomi looked at Tatsuya. "You know, Tatsuya, you remind me of my little brother. That's why I have to help you." "I see. Well, to be honest, you kind of look like my older cousin Rena." "Heh, who knows? Maybe we are related some how." "It'd be funny if it was true." "Tell you what. I'll look into it and let you know. What's your family name?" "Higurashi." "Hmm, that sounds familiar for some reason." "Well, my dad works at channel 9 news. He's the eye in the sky reporter." "That might be it, but it feels more personal than that. Well, I'll just have to look into my family tree." "Hope you find something." "Trust me, if it's there, I'll find it. Alright, there's your class. This is where we say goodbye. Keep up the good fight, Tatsuya." "Yeah, you too, Hitomi." The two then parted ways and Tatsuya rejoined his class. "What did she want to show you?" Sakura asked. "Oh, she wanted to show her jet. It was pretty freaking sweet." "Man, wish it could've been me." Ken said. And so the tour continued.

The next day, Tatsuya sat at lunch with his friends. "Man, I can't believe I couldn't find Ultraman." Ken said. "Well, you didn't think it would be that easy, did you? Were you expecting some guy to run up and say 'hi, I'm Ultraman'?" Sakura asked. "Well, no, but…Dang it. Why didn't you guys help me?" "I was busy enjoying the tour." Sakura said. "Me too." Tatsuya said. "Some friends you guys are." Tatsuya looked up at the clock. "Well, it's about time for me to go meet with my teachers." "Okay, good luck. Learn something and share it with us." Sakura said. "I'll try." Tatsuya then ran off. He hurried to the office, but found no one waiting for him. So, he headed to the roof. There stood Seven and Ultraman, already transformed. "Well, you guys are obviously ready. Just let me get changed." Riser produced the gauntlets and Tatsuya transformed. No sooner had he done so than Seven threw his head fin at Titan. Tatsuya stepped out of the way, then blasted the fin further away with one of his laser blasts. "There, that should make it take longer to come back. Now, then, shall we?" UltraSeven brought up one hand and motioned for Titan to bring it on. And Tatsuya did just that. He rushed his fellow Ultras and ducked low, dodging Ultraman's punch.. He went for a high kick on Ultraseven, but he blocked it. Seven then went for kick of his own, but Titan blocked it. And thus the fight continued.

Meanwhile, on the monster's ship, a female monster headed into the command room. She had a female, humanoid figure, but she covered in bear like fur. She wore a belt with two metal bars hanging from holsters on the belt. "Tell me, Draxil. What would you say to applying a woman's touch to your Ultraman problem?" The female monster asked. "Are you saying to that you'd like a shot at him, Darcia?" "Maybe. I've done my part with the repairs and now I'm bored. So, it would give me something to do." "Very well. Computer, open a portal to Earth for Darcia." "Acknowledged. Darcia prepare for transport." The portal opened and Darcia stepped through.

Back on Earth, the three Ultramen continued their training. However, when Titan noticed the sky acting strange once again, he flew off and grew to his giant size. He landed not far from the school. Once again, the kids in the school ran to the windows to watch their hero in action. Sakura again wondered why Ultraman had appeared near their school. "Is Tatsuya right about the reason, or is it something else?" She wondered. She didn't have time to continue wondering, for the portal had opened and Darcia had stepped through. It was time to root Ultraman on. "Is that a girl monster?" She wondered out loud. "Who cares? A monster's a monster. Kick her butt, Titan!" Ken, who was nearby, yelled. Tatsuya was unsure about fighting Darcia. "I don't know, Riser. It's against my policies to hit women." "Normally, it's against mine too, Tatsuya. But, this 'lady' will kill us and maybe many others if we don't fight her." "I guess your right. Alright, let's do this." Titan charged at Darcia. Darcia reached for the bars on her belt. She pulled them out and blue energy began to flow from the bars. They took the shape of whips. "What the heck are those?" Tatsuya asked. Tatsuya got his answer when Darcia struck Titan across the chest with one of the energy whips. "Arg!" Titan cried. "Heh, heh." Darcia snickered. She then continued to whip Titan. After several strikes from the whips, Darcia wrapped one of the energy whips around Titan's neck. She then reeled him in and threw him up in the air with the whip. She then brought him back to her with a yo-yo like motion. She punched him in the stomach and then repeated the throw. She continued this yo-yo like sequence until Titan's color timer began flashing red. She then threw him to the ground and started stomping on his back. She did this several times. She then aimed a kick a Titan's head. But just as she fired, four beams of energy tore into Darcia's foot. "AH!" she screamed. She turned to see the I-NAC ships screaming in. "Target the monster and get her off Ultraman's back!" Hitomi yelled. "You heard her. Attack!" Captain Iyase yelled. The fighters continued their assault. As they did, Darcia wound up one of her whips and was about to throw at one of the fighters, when a blue beam of energy blasted her hand from a nearby street. This mystery beam distracted Darcia long enough for the fighters to fire their main guns and blow one of the whips out of Darcia's hand. She was about to swing the other one when Titan, now in power mode, rose up and blocked it. "Yes! He's up! Now take her down, Tatsuya!" Hitomi thought. Darcia wrapped the whip around Titan's arm and tried to drag him to her. But, Tatsuya dug in Titan's heels and jerked his arm back at full strength. This caused Darcia to loose her footing and come flying at Titan. Tatsuya charged up the volcanic fist and hit Darcia square in the face with it when she go close enough. This knocked the lady monster to the ground. Tatsuya then had Titan fly up and fire the pulverizing current attack. This tore through Darcia, causing her to explode. Tatsuya then noticed the timer's blinking and knew he had to hurry off. So, he gave a quick thumbs up to the pilots and flew off, disappearing over the school.

As the fighters flew back to their base, Tatsuya ran back to the roof. "Hey, guys!" Tatsuya called to Mr. Hayata and Mr. Kazamori. "Ah, Tatsuya. Congratulations on another victory." Mr. Hayata said. "Thanks. And thanks for the assist." "We didn't assist you." Mr. Kazamori said. "Come on, no need to be modest with me. I saw a blue beam of energy hit that monster's hand. It looked like an ultra's beam. Which one of you did it come from?" "Tatsuya, we simply watched. We let you handle the battle on your own. But we saw the beam your talking about. It came from that street over there." Mr. Hayata said, pointing to a nearby street. "But, I didn't see another ultra over there." "Remember, ultras can hide in human form. So it could've from what looked like a human." "So, then, there's another ultra on Earth that's yet to reveal him or herself. I wonder who it is." Meanwhile, in an alley, the mystery woman stood talking to herself. "Now that I've helped him, I guess I should reveal myself to him. It's time for a meeting."


	10. Another Ultra in town

Chapter 10

The next day, Tatsuya sat at lunch with his friends. "Man, is there any monster that can beat Ultraman?" Ken said. "Let's hope not." Sakura said. "It was a joke, Sakura. We all know that Titan won't ever lose. He said so himself." " 'I will never accept defeat' were his exact words." Tatsuya said, remembering when he had said that as Titan. "Good memory, Tatsuya." Ken said. " Heh, thanks." "Say, guys?" Sakura asked suddenly. "Yeah?" Tatsuya and Ken said at the same time. "My dad's taking me to the amusement park today after work. He said we don't get to have fun together enough. So, he wanted to do something fun with me." "Good for you, Sakura. Have fun." Ken said. "I'm not done, Ken. He said you guys could come too." "But, I thought it was some kind of father-daughter thing." Tatsuya said. "Dad said that he knows that I have the most fun when I'm with you guys and he said that, as long as I'm having fun, he'll be having fun too. So he said, to get the most fun out of this trip, you guys can come too. So what do you say?" "Goof off on a school night? Do you need to ask? Heck yeah, I'm in. What about you, Tatsuya?" Ken asked. "Sure, I'm game. But, we should probably call our parents, just in case." "Guess your right. Alright, everyone, phones out." Ken said. The three friends removed their phones from their pockets. "On three. One, two, three! Dial!" The three called their parents and did their best to convince them to let them go. Once Tatsuya and Ken had the go ahead and Sakura's dad had been alerted, the three hung up and high-fived each other. "Alright, looks like we're going." Ken said. "Right. Now, we just have to meet dad at work." "He works at the power plant, right? Will they even let us in?" Tatsuya asked. "Don't worry. They know me. Trust me, they'll let us in." "Alright then. I'll see you guys later. Time for my special teachers." "Alright, see you after school." Sakura said.

After school, Ken, Sakura and Tatsuya gathered at their school's front gate. "Alright, let's go, guys." Sakura said. "Right." Tatsuya said. Meanwhile, on the monster's ship, Draxil was plotting with Tyros. "You know, Tyros, I was thinking, just to mix things up and keep Ultraman on his toes, maybe we should target a specific place. What do you think?" "I think it's a brilliant idea, master Draxil. But, what area should we attack?" "I've been monitoring the humans and this seems to be an important place. Computer, show Tyros what I'm talking about." The computer responded by posting an image of a large building. "What is that, master?" "According to the ship's translator, it's known as a power plant. Apparently, this one building produces the power upon which the entire city runs. Imagine what would happen if it were destroyed." "Ooo! Master, you're a genius. Targeting that place would definitely throw Ultraman for a loop. But, who do we send?" "I've already summoned him." Suddenly, the control room door opened and an insectoid monster stepped through. He had long claws and a beetle like horn sticking out of his head. His name was Multofas. "Ah, Multofas, welcome to the control." Draxil kidded. "Yeah, let's skip the formalities, Draxil. What do you want me to destroy?" "I want you to use your powers to destroy this building down on Earth. Destroy it from the inside out." "You got it. I just love smashing stuff. Let's do this!" "Computer, a portal to Earth for Multofas, please. And try to set him down by the power plant." "Acknowledged. Multofas, prepare for transport." The portal opened and Multofas stepped through. "Master, you do realize that we don't have many soldiers left." "Who cares, Tyros? The less there are, the fewer we have to share the prize with." "I see. So that's your angle." "You won't tell anyone, will you, Tyros?" Draxil asked, his eyes glowing blood red. "N-no sir. They won't hear a word from me." "Good."

Back on Earth, Tatsuya and friends had arrived at the power plant. It was not far from the school. As Sakura said, the guards knew Sakura and let her and her friends inside. Once there, they quickly hunted down Mr. Kudo. "Good timing everybody. I just got done with work. Let me go get changed and we'll head out." Mr. Kudo said. "Alright, dad. We'll wait right here." Mr. Kudo nodded and left for the locker room. While they waited, Tatsuya decided to people watch from the nearby window. He walked over to the window and looked out. He saw the sky acting up again. "Oh, crap. Why now?" Tatsuya muttered to himself. "Did you say something Tatsuya?" Sakura asked. "I said I need to go to the bathroom." 'Oh, I saw one on the way in here. It's right down the hall." "Thanks. See ya in a minute." Tatsuya raced out of the room and down the hall. Once he was sure he was out of sight, he ran out a nearby door. He ended up outside, on the left side of the building. He looked up to see Multofas stepping out of the portal. He watched him touch down and then reveal the nature of his powers. Multofas had the ability to break himself down into a legion of human sized versions of himself. Tatsuya watched in horror as the drones ran inside the building. "Oh, crap. We've gotta hurry. Let's do this, Riser!" "Right." Riser produced the gauntlets and Tatsuya went through the arm movements. He concentrated on the idea of being human sized and yelled 'Titan!' He transformed in a golden flash of light and ran back inside the building. It was a scene of utter chaos. The Multofas drones were attacking everyone. There was an evacuation order being blasted over the loud speakers. Tatsuya knew he had to pacify the situation and quickly. He got to work by blasting the nearest drones with his twin beams and told the men the drones were attacking to run. After that, he raced through the building, blast into oblivion every drone he came across. After a minute of this, he heard an ear-piercing scream. "That sounds like Sakura!" Tatsuya had Titan race back to room he had left Sakura and Ken in. When he got there, he found a small swarm of the drones attacking Sakura and Ken. Ken was doing his best to fend the monsters off with a mop he had found. Tatsuya charged up energy and folded his arms into an L shape, before firing it in a wave at the monsters. He tore threw them all and cleared the room. "Ultraman!" Sakura yelled. "Go on, get out of here!" Titan yelled. "Look out, Titan!" Ken yelled. Tatsuya turned around just in time to be caught up in a sneak attack by a pack of drones. They tackled him to the floor. "Ultraman!" Sakura yelled. Just then rapid bursts of energy tore into the drones back, providing enough of a distraction to the drones for Titan to transform into power mode and force them off of himself. He then charged his twin blasts and made short work of the drones. He then looked to see where the energy bursts had come from. Standing a short ways away was Hitomi. "Hey, it's that lady from I-NAC." Ken said. "Hitomi Watanabe, at your service. Don't worry about these kids, Titan. I'll escort them out. You finish up here." Titan nodded and flew off. "Good luck, Tatsuya." Hitomi thought, before leading Ken and Sakura out of the room.

While Hitomi took care of Ken and Sakura, Titan flew through the building, chasing down all the remaining drones he could find. He had them on the run. They ran out the front door and stopped right in front of the crowd of people that had gathered there. They then began to combine and reform the giant Multofas. Once he reformed, Titan assumed his giant form and began fighting the monster. As he did, Multofas fired several drones from each hand like living missiles. The drones grabbed onto Titan's arms and weighed them down. Multofas then struck Titan repeatedly with his claws and horn. Titan did his best to hold Multofas off with kicks, but it wasn't doing much good. "Arg! We need to break free or he's going to gore us to death. Got any ideas, Riser?" "Well, I remember that Taro had this one move where he would cloak himself in fire and charge at the enemy. Then he would explode the energy upon contact with the enemy and teleport away, dodging the explosion. Maybe we could do the same thing." "Alright let's do it. Just like with the volcanic fist, concentrate on the idea of heat and fire." As the two concentrated, heat energy began to gather around Titan's body. When a solid cloak of heat began to build, the drones holding onto Titan began to get burned off. The fell off in burning heaps, exploding when they hit the ground. Once freed from the Drones, Tatsuya had Titan charge Multofas. Multofas jumped high into the air to dodge, but Titan flew after him. He eventually caught him and finished the attack. "Ultra Dynamite!" Riser yelled as they finished the attack. The attack exploded and Titan teleported to safety. The blast completely obliterated Multofas. "Taro would've been proud, Riser." "Thank you, Tatsuya. Now, let's go rejoin your friends." "Right." Titan flew off and disappeared over the power plant. Tatsuya then entered the plant from the back and ran through to the front to join his friends. "Tatsuya! Where've you been?" Sakura yelled. "Well, to be honest, I've been hiding from the monsters in the bathroom." "Man, you are such a wuss." Ken said. "Yeah, whatever. But, man, now I really need a break. Are you ready to go, Mr. Kudo?" "Uh, yeah."

Later that night, after a relaxing day at the amusement park, Tatsuya sat at home, watching TV. Suddenly, his mother came into the room. "Tatsuya, honey, we're out of milk and eggs and I have make cupcakes for Setsuna's class tomorrow. Can you be a dear and run down to the market and pick some up?" "Sure thing mom." Tatsuya switched off the TV and stood up. He walked over to his mother and accepted the money for the groceries. "Alright, I'll be back in a minute." Tatsuya headed out the door and began to make his way to the market. It didn't take him to arrive. He quickly got the eggs and milk and then paid for them. He then left as soon as he came. As he began to walk down the street back to his house, he heard Riser making nervous noises inside his head. "What's wrong, Riser?" "I sense a strong source of power, Tatsuya. And it's getting closer." Soon, a woman rounded the corner. "I finally found you." She said to Tatsuya. "It's her! Tatsuya, she's the one with the power!" "What?" "She's not human Tatsuya. This power, it's the power of an Ultra!" "What? She's an Ultra?" "I see. So you're a human host." The woman said. "She knows what I am. Who is she, Riser?" "This power, it feels so familiar. It, it can't be. I saw her fall." "Answer me, Riser! Who is she?" "It's impossible, but, I sense the power of the princess coming from her!" "What? She's Yullian?" "Indeed I am. And it's time for us to talk, Ultraman Titan."


	11. Sakura knows

Chapter 11

Tatsuya stood in awe. Unless he was dreaming, he was standing before the princess of Riser's world, Princess Yullian. Tatsuya tightened his grip on the grocery bag in his left hand. He could feel the soft plastic squish under his grip. He knew he wouldn't be able to feel that if he was asleep. Thus, he knew this was real. "Let's say I buy that your Yullian. Can you prove it to me?" "Very well. I'll show you." The woman raised her arm, exposing a gleaming silver bangle. She then shouted 'Yullian!' There was a bright flash of light, and when the light faded, Princess Yullian stood before Tatsuya. "That's her! That's definitely her!" Riser shouted in Tatsuya's head. "So, you're the real deal." Tatsuya said. "Indeed I am." Yullian said, reverting to her human form. "But, I don't understand. How can she be here? I saw her fall!" Riser said. "Riser says that he saw you fall." "Well, Riser needs to learn to check the vitals of people before he takes off to another planet." Tatsuya heard Riser be taken aback. "Tatsuya, can I…" "Talk to her? Sure thing. Go ahead. Possess me." Tatsuya's eyes glowed, signaling Riser's control. "Hello, Riser. Long time, no see." Yullian said. "Princess, how can you be here?" "It's rather simple, Riser. You thought I was defeated, and in truth I was, but I wasn't finished off by the monsters. I was knocked unconscious. But, I regained consciousness just in time to see you take off through the Earth portal. I must admit, I was surprised to see how much the power of the spark changed you. Your all grown up now and fighting monsters on your own. Your mother and father would be proud." "Do you know where they are?" "Indeed I do." "Where are they?" "Your mother is in a safe hiding place, here on Earth. Your father is still trapped on the monsters' ship." "What?" "You see, Riser, after you left, I was captured by the monsters. I later found out that your parents were as well. But, when you damaged the monsters' ship, Marie and I managed to escape. Unfortunately, your father wasn't able to." "I see. What, What have you been doing all this time?" "Recovering." "I see. Can I, Can I see my mother?" "In time. She's still weak. From my examination of her, she took far worse of a beating than I did. So, for right now, it's best for her to rest and not see anybody. You know, you and your brothers are all she thinks about. She mentions your names in her sleep." "I see. Well, I hope she recovers soon. I'm dying to see her." "I will let you know when she's recovered enough to see you." "Thank you, Princess. By the way, what do I call you in this form?" "I am known as Ryoko in this form." "Ryoko, that's a nice name." "What's your human form's name?" "Let him tell you." Riser relinquished control back to Tatsuya. "My name is Tatsuya Higurashi, ma'am." Tatsuya said, bowing. "Nice to meet you, Tatsuya. You know, no one knows who you are, so no one can thank you for what you do." "Well, one human woman, a member of I-NAC, knows who I am, but she hasn't thanked me." "Well then…" Ryoko walked over to Tatsuya. "Allow me to thank you for everybody." Ryoko leaned in and kissed Tatsuya's cheek. The surprised made Tatsuya nearly drop the groceries. "P-princess." "Please, call me Yullian. Or, in this form, Ryoko would be fine. And that goes for you too, Riser." "Okay, uh, thank you, Ryoko." "No, thank you, Ultraman." "Tatsuya, I've got a question for her. I just now thought of it." "Alright, go ahead." Riser took back control. "Ryoko?" "Yes, Riser?" "Why did the plasma spark change me the way it did? The armor had something to do with it, didn't it?" "Yes, it did. You see, Riser, after Belial's attack, we needed a weapon that could contend with such a threat before so much damage could be done again. Hikari came up with the armor. In pieces, it would funnel away the energy of the spark, making it safe to handle. But, when in a complete set, it would funnel energy into the ultra man, or ultra woman, wearing it, thereby magnifying his or her powers until he or she was strong enough to deal with a threat like Belial. Basically, the armor was designed to create the ultimate Ultraman. Which, right now, is you." "I, I see. Um, one more question." "Fine." "Where did the spark go?" "Ah, that was the second function of the armor. It had a danger detection system that, if enough danger to the spark was detected, it would pull the spark into the body of the Ultraman wearing the armor for safe keeping. Who better to guard the spark than the ultimate Ultraman?" "So, then, the spark's inside me!" "That's right. Can't you feel it?" "I've been so overwhelmed by this new power that I'm not sure where I end it begins." "I see. I'll have to tell Hikari that when this is all over. Well, I should get back to Marie and Tatsuya should get home. I just wanted to let you know that I'm here if you need me, Riser." "Thank you, Princess." Riser said. "Riser…" "oops, I mean, thank you, Ryoko." "That's better. Well, be seeing you." Riser released control and it went back to Tatsuya. "Wait, Ryoko!" "Yes?" "I have a sort of team training me to be a better Ultraman, could you join them?" "Well, I can't leave Marie for very long, but I suppose I could spare some time each day. When do you meet with this team and who's on it?" "We meet at my school, on the roof, at lunch time everyday. And the one's on my team are Kotaro Higashi, the former host of Ultraman Taro, Ultraman and Ultra Seven." "I haven't talked to those two in a while. Sure, I'll join team Titan." "Team Titan…I kind of like that. Alright, so, I'll see you tomorrow?" "You sure will." "Alright, till then, good night." "Good night."

The next day, Tatsuya enjoyed lunch with his friends for a while then got up to leave. "See you guys later. Got a new teacher today, so I need to hurry on." "Alright, later Tatsuya. Hey, we still on for the arcade after school?" Ken asked. "You know it." "Alright, later." "Later." Tatsuya then walked off. "You ever wonder what he studies when he's with those special teachers?" Sakura asked. "No, no really." "Well, I sure do. I mean, he doesn't talk much about them and that's just weird. Tatsuya usually tells us everything. Especially me." "Well, if you want to know so bad, why don't you follow him?" "Good idea. Later, Ken." "Hey, wait…" Sakura had already left the room. "Why does she have to know everything about Tatsuya's life? What is she, his girlfriend? Wait, they aren't carrying on behind my back are they?…Nah." Meanwhile, Sakura stealthily followed Tatsuya through the halls. When he went up the stairs, she was careful to tread lightly, so as to not draw his attention. Finally, Tatsuya headed up the stairs to the roof. Sakura watched her friend go through the door at the top of the stairs that lead to the roof. "What's he doing on the roof?" Sakura hurried up to the door and opened it a crack. Through the crack, she saw Mr. Higashi, Tatsuya and three people she had never seen before. Tatsuya was fighting the one woman in the group, while the others watched. "What's going on?" She could hear Tatsuya talking to the woman. "You know, it's against my policies to fight women." "You made exception with that female monster the other day." The woman said. "Well, that's different. She was evil. Your good. Big difference." "Well, for now, treat me as your enemy, like that monster." "Yes, ma'am." "What are they going on about? Female monster?" Just then, Sakura saw the sky acting up. A tear opened in the sky and a large, turtle like monster stepped through. His shell was covered in long spikes, the size of most missiles. He had a blood red horn on his snout. Unknown to Sakura, his name was Hyperion. "A monster!" Sakura said. She then noticed Tatsuya walk over to the edge of the roof. "Go for it Tatsuya. Take him down." The woman cheered. "Right. Riser." Sakura watched as a pair of gauntlets seemingly magically appeared on Tatsuya's wrists. She watched Tatsuya go through some arm movements and then heard him shout 'Titan!' She saw him be covered in a golden light and then shoot towards the sky. There was an explosion and she saw Ultraman Titan emerge from it. "No way! Did Tatsuya just…No way! Tatsuya is Titan?" She watched as Titan engaged the monster. He landed thunderous punches to the monster's snout. He broke the horn off and broke it over the monster's shell. Then the monster's shell opened and flew up, striking Titan and knocking him down. The spikes then began to shake. They then fired like missiles. Sakura saw Titan quickly change into his speed mode and begin deflecting the spikes. She then saw one spike fly wildly towards the school. But, Titan saw it as well. He disappeared in a blur and reappeared in front of the school, taking the spike directly to the back. The monster fired several more spikes and knocked Titan closer and closer to the roof. "Tatsuya!" Sakura yelled. Ryoko heard her. She walked over and opened the door. "Uh, hi." Sakura said, giving a nervous wave. "The view's better out here." Ryoko said, motioning for Sakura to come outside. Sakura walked outside nervously. "Is Tatsuya really…" "Yes, he is. You're his friend right? you should cheer him on?" Sakura nodded. "You can do it, Tatsuya!" Tatsuya heard Sakura. "Sakura, what are you doing here?" Titan said. "Don't worry, we'll keep her safe. Just finish this battle, Tatsuya." Ryoko said. Titan nodded. He turned around caught the next missile spike and then disappeared in a blur and reappeared in front of the monster. He drove the opening between the shell plates. The spike went straight through the monster and exited through it's stomach and then went into the ground. This immobilized the monster. Titan then flew up and charged up the Giga beam. He then fired it and caused the monster to explode. He then flew up and disappeared over the school.

Tatsuya reappeared on the roof, without the gauntlets. He walked gingerly towards Sakura. "Sakura, I can explain…" Sakura ran forward and slapped Tatsuya. "Ow!" "How dare you not tell me about this! Why? Why didn't you tell me that this was what you were doing? Do you know how this makes me feel?" "I'm sorry, Sakura. But, I couldn't tell you. As you've seen, I'm Ultraman Titan. And, as you've also seen, my enemies are powerful. And I didn't want take the chance of you getting involved in this. Cause I didn't want to lose you. You're my best friend, Sakura. Always have been and always will be. So, I couldn't chance you in this war." "But, I…" Sakura suddenly threw her arms around Tatsuya's neck. "I could help, Tatsuya. I don't know how, but please, let me try. For our friendship's sake, let me try." Sakura said, while sobbing. Tatsuya looked to his teachers. "We'll protect her while you fight. You have our words." Ryoko said. Mr. Hayata and Mr. Kazamori nodded. "Sakura, welcome to the team." "Oh, thank you, Tatsuya. I promise, you won't regret this." "I'm not so sure." "We said we'll protect her didn't we? Just leave her to us." Mr. Kazamori said. "Okay then. You better protect her with your lives. If you don't, I'll turn Titan's power on you." "We promise, we'll stake our lives on her protection." "Thank you." "Tatsuya, who are these people? I know Mr. Higashi, but who are the others?" "Right. Time to get you caught up."


	12. Sakura's role

Chapter 12

Tatsuya spent the next few minutes getting Sakura caught up. "A lot of things just made sense. And, this is incredible. So, basically, everyone here, except me, either is or was the human form of an ultra man or woman." The group nodded. Sakura then looked to Tatsuya. She remembered the incident from the other day, when she had kissed Ultraman Titan. Her cheeks turned red. "Um, Tatsuya?" "Yeah?" "When your Titan, can you feel everything that Titan gets hit with?" "Yup. Some times I wish I couldn't, but then I think about how much I love being fully involved with this whole thing and I forget about the pain. Why do you ask?" "Well, I was just thinking about something." "What's that?" "Your really gonna make me say it?" Tatsuya nodded. "Alright. Well, how do I say this? You remember when I told you about how I kissed Ultraman?" "Yeah." "Well, since your Titan, does that mean I kissed you too?" "I guess it does. You kissed me and Riser at the same time." "Oh God! I kissed my best friend and an alien!" Sakura yelled, her whole face turning red. "Um, if it makes you feel any better, Sakura, I didn't really have time to dwell on it. You know, what with the monster and all." "You didn't even think about it?" "Well, I thought about it later, but at the time, I didn't think too much about it, cause, like I said, I had a monster to fight." "Well, I don't honestly know if that makes me feel better or not. I just can't believe this!" "Why are you making such a big deal about this, Miss Kudo?" Mr. Higashi asked. "Because it was my first kiss!" Everyone was taken aback. "I thought it would be different. I thought kissing ultra man wouldn't count for some reason. But, now I see how much it counted. I can't believe you were my first kiss, Tatsuya." "Was it that bad?" Tatsuya asked. "No, but, I just never thought you'd be my first, Tatsuya. I always thought we'd just be friends, but now I don't know what to think." "Well, it's not like we're boyfriend and girlfriend. We're just friends who happened to have had one innocent kiss in their past. A kiss that had a purpose too. Imagine if you hadn't kissed Titan, Sakura. Me and Riser might not have woken up in time to stop that monster. Innocent people could've gotten hurt or worse. So really, a lot of people owe their lives to that kiss." "Whoa, I didn't think of that. When you put it that way, it sounds like an honor." "One that not many earth women can claim I might add." Ryoko added. "Well, if that's the case, I'll consider it an honor." Sakura said, a broad smile covering her face. Ryoko smiled and nodded. Tatsuya then looked at his watch. "Well, we can talk some more later. Right now, we should get back to class. Let's go, Sakura." "Right."

That nigh, Tatsuya had a terrible nightmare. It involved him fighting a monster as Titan when one of the monster's beam attacks goes wild. The next thing Tatsuya saw in this nightmare was Sakura being vaporized by the wild beam attack. Tatsuya woke up in a cold sweat. "No!" he yelled. Just after he did, Setsuna came walking into his room. "You okay, big bro?" Setsuna asked. "Y-yeah, I'm fine." "Then what were you yelling no for just a second ago?" "I had a really bad dream. I was just trying really hard to convince myself that it would never happen." "What happened in your dream?" Tatsuya hesitated for moment. "I can't tell her who I am, but I can tell her about the dream, right?" He wondered to himself. "Well, in the dream, I saw Ultraman Titan fighting a monster and then one of the monster's attacks goes wild and hits Sakura, who's watching the fight, and it kills her." "Whoa. Why would you have a dream like that?" "I don't know." "Well, no need to worry, Tatsu. This is Titan we're talking about. Titan would never let anything happen to Sakura or anyone else." "But what if he couldn't help it?" "He could always help it, Tatsu. Titan's a hero and heroes don't let anyone get hurt. Especially not pretty girls like Sakura." "I guess your right." "Of course I'm right. Now go back to sleep." "Yes, 'mother'." "Shut up and go to sleep." Setsuna said as she walked out of the room. "Glad to know Setsuna's got so much faith." Tatsuya thought to himself. "She's right you know, Tatsuya." Riser said. "We'll never let anything bad happen to Sakura. And neither will the other Ultras." "I know we can try but… I guess I just can't help but worry about my friends." "That's understandable. But, you need to have faith Tatsuya. You've always believed in yourself until now, so why stop?" "Yeah, good point. Thanks, Riser." "Hey, what are friends for? Now come on, go to sleep. You've got school tomorrow." "Right."

The next day, Sakura sat and watched Tatsuya train with the other Ultras. She sat and wondered what she could possibly do to help Tatsuya. "Come on, think Sakura. There must be something. Something only you can do. But, what?" Sakura spent all of lunch thinking about this problem and she went to bed that night thinking about it as well.

As Sakura drifted off to sleep, Draxil was hatching a plan on the monsters' ship. " Say Tyros, how well do you think Ultraman fights at night?" "Well, master, you said that Ultraman runs on light, and there's not much light at night, so I think he'd be weaker at night." "wrong, he'd be just as strong. But, his eyesight might suffer due to the low light. And that gave me an idea." Just then, a large, humanoid, bat like creature with large wings on his back entered the control room. "You rang for me, Draxil?" the monster asked as he walked in. "Indeed I did, Kirius. I want you to go to Earth and fight Ultraman. With you abilities and the fact that it's night time on Earth right now, you should be able to win." "Alright, but what's in it for me?" "Well, what do you want?" "How about a bigger percentage of the power of the plasma spark once we get it?" Draxil's eyes narrowed in anger at the sound of this request, but he nodded in agreement regardless. "Alright then. I'll be back soon. Computer, to Earth." The computer generated the portal and Kirius stepped through. "You'd better destroy this one, Ultraman." Draxil thought.

Down on Earth, Riser woke Tatsuya up. "Tatsuya, I sense a monster coming!" "What? Now?" "Yes, now." "Alright, let's rock." Tatsuya walked over to his window and opened it. He then had Riser produce the gauntlets and he went through the arm movements. He then quietly said 'Titan' and turned into a golden ball of light. He flew out of the window. Sakura was awakened by the flash of light shooting past her window. She walked over to the window and saw a familiar ball of light shooting of towards the heart of town. "I want a better view." She thought. She then opened her window and climbed out onto the tree which stood between her and Tatsuya's house. She climbed to the ground and then ran to the corner of their block, where the view was better. Just as she got to the end of the block, the ball of light turned into Ultraman. A second later, the portal in the sky opened and Kirius stepped through. He immediately charged Titan and knocked him to the ground. Titan fired a energy blast into Kirius's face. This knocked the monster off the giant. "I see ,so I can't out muscle you. Well, then, it's time to outsmart you." Kirius then revealed that his power was the ability to turn invisible. Once invisible he attacked to Titan several times. He knocked him to the ground and then picked him up and then flapped the mighty wings on his back. He flew up high, while carrying Titan and then he threw Titan. He charged Titan in mid-air and slammed him around in the sky and then back to Earth. Titan landed hard and his color timer began flashing. "Come on, Tatsuya." Sakura said. Riser then had an idea. "Tatsuya, I know how we can catch him." "How?" "Well, I know we can't see him. But, I can still sense him. So, I'll sense where he's coming from and you attack." "Okay, got it." Titan got to his feet and Riser began to sense Kirius's location. He sensed him swooping in from the right. "High right!" Tatsuya threw a punch and caught Kirius in the throat. The impact temporarily deactivated Kirius invisbilty. He then turned invisible once more and came in low from the left. Riser sensed this and told Tatsuya about it. Tatsuya quickly charged the volcanic fist and caught Kirius in the stomach with it. Once again, his invisibility faded and went back up. Kirius flapped his wings and flew up and over Titan. "He's right above us!" Tatsuya quickly charged the Titan sabers and rapidly struck Kirius with them. This knocked out Kirius's invisbilty again and knocked him to the ground. The attack took so much out of Kirius that he had trouble getting back up, let alone regenerating his invisibility. "Quick, while he's down! Finish it!" Riser yelled. "Right." Tatsuya charged up the hyper drill and jumped over to Kirius. He came down on op of Kirius and slammed the drill through Kirius's stomach. Kirius promptly exploded. Titan then took off quickly. He flew over towards his house. He looked down and saw Sakura. She was waving her arm wildly. Titan shrank to human size and then reverted to Tatsuya, without the gauntlets. "How long have you been here?" "The whole time. Nice fight." "Uh, thanks. Well, come on, let's get home." The two walked back down the street. When they reached the door to Tatsuya's house, they found Tatsuya's parents, along with Setsuna, waiting for him. "Where have you been young man? I got up to go to the bathroom and I walked by your room and found your window open. So, where've you been?" Mr. Higurashi asked. "Well, I, uh…" Sakura quickly thought up lie for Tatsuya. "He was with me." Sakura said. "We were out walking." "This late? And with Ultraman fighting a monster?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "Why?" "Well, we both like Ultraman and it was a good chance to spend time together." "Spend time together?" Sakura had thought up another lie. "Yeah, you see, we wanted to keep this a secret but, you see, it finally happened. Tatsuya and I…We started dating!" "What?" Setsuna yelled. Sakura turned to face a surprised Tatsuya. "Tatsuya, let's show them. Kiss me!" Sakura then threw herself into Tatsuya and kissed him. Mrs. Higurashi clapped wildly. "Oh, I've been waiting for this for so many years. Congrats you two." "Thanks, Mrs. Higurashi." "Well, I guess if that's all you were doing and you weren't in any danger, we can let it slide. But, from now on, keep your courtship to the day time." Mr. Higurashi said. "Yes sir." Sakura said. "Well, it's time to get back to bed. Tatsuya, say good night to your girlfriend. Oh, love the sound of that." "Uh, right." Sakura suddenly hugged Tatsuya. "This is what I can do. I can cover for you." She said quietly in his ear. Tatsuya nodded. "Well, good night, everybody. See you tomorrow, Tatsu." Sakura then walked off. "Well, come on to bed, Tatsuya, You've got school tomorrow." Mr. Higurashi said. "Right." As he walked inside, Tatsuya silently thanked Sakura. "Thank you, Sakura. And I promise, I'll protect you like you really are my girl. No matter what pain may come, I will protect you."


	13. The family of Titan

Chapter 13

The next day, Tatsuya found himself turned into Titan once again. He was fighting against a monster named Hitolo. Hitolo was a giant elephant like monster. He had incredible strength, but his key ability was the mirror like panels that were attached to various parts of his skin. It reflected most of Titan's beam attacks. "Come on, Tatsuya! Beat the crap out of him already!" Sakura yelled. She was watching the fight with the other members of 'team titan', as Ryoko called it. "None of his beam attacks will work so long as that monster has those mirror panels." Mr. Hayata said. Sakura heard Mr. Hayata yelled to Titan. "Tatsuya! You've gotta break the mirrors!" Titan heard her and nodded. He charged up the volcanic fist and slugged one of the panels, which was on Hitolo's right shoulder. It shattered instantly. The monster roared at the loss of one of his precious panels. He then rose up and gored Titan with his tusks. The momentum of this attack knocked Titan to the ground. Hitolo then jumped up and came crashing down on top of Titan. He planted both feet into Titan's stomach when he landed. Hitolo then proceeded to punch Titan in the head several times. Sakura winced with every blow, as if she was the one being hit. "Tatsuya! Come on! Don't let him treat you like that!" She yelled. As these words reached Titan, Hitolo fired another punch. Titan heard Sakura in time to stop Hitolo's punch by grabbing Hitolo's fist. While Titan held off his other hand, Hitolo fired another punch with his free hand. Titan grabbed that one too. He then began to climb to his feet. Once there, he quickly turned around and grabbed both of Hitolo's arms. He then proceeded to lift Hitolo and then threw him over his shoulder. Hitolo came crashing down on top of the mirror panel on his left shoulder. It broke upon impact. This enraged Hitolo once again, as he was very proud of his mirrors. Hitolo charged Titan and attempted to gore him. However, Titan was ready for it. Titan grabbed Hitolo by the tusks when he got close and spun him around. He then planted his foot in Hitolo's back. This pushed Hitolo away somewhat. Tatsuya then decided to have Titan use the titan sabers. Once the sabers were charged, he ran up behind Hitolo and sliced through his shoulders, right at the areas where the panels had been shattered. Cutting through these areas rendered Hitolo's arms useless. As Hitolo roared in pain, Titan began to hover above the ground. He flew forward and turned side ways when he reached Hitolo. He then delivered the burning scissor kick, known as the Leo kick, to Hitolo's back and stomach. He broke all the panels in both places. This attack also brought Hitolo to his knees. Titan circled around Hitolo and finally finished the battle by boring through Hitolo with the hyper drill. Hitolo promptly exploded. Sakura jumped up and down and even high-fived Ryoko in her excitement over Titan's victory. Titan meanwhile, flew over the school and disappeared. Tatsuya appeared on the roof a second later. Riser called back the gauntlets. Sakura came running up to Tatsuya. She threw a tight hug on and even kissed his cheek. "Way to go, Tatsu!" "Thanks, Sakura." "You too, Rise." Riser temporarily took over Tatsuya. Sakura saw Tatsuya's eyes glow, indicating Riser's control. "Thank you, Sakura. Um, by the way, why did you call me Rise?" "Well, since I'm calling Tatsuya Tatsu now, I might as well be fair and call you by a nickname too, since your, essentially, part of Tatsuya." "I see. Well, thank you for being fair. Um, by the way, since we're being fair here, can I call you Saku?" "Sure. And Tatsuya can too." Riser nodded Tatsuya's head and released control back to Tatsuya. "Glad to hear it, Saku." Tatsuya said. "You know, I don't think I will ever get used to that personality swapping thing." "Well, if your gonna date me, even if it's just pretend, you'd better." "Yeah, I guess. You know, Tatsu, I've been thinking." "And?" "Well, you've put yourself on the line so much for me. It's really just now sunk in. You've taken so punishment on account of me. You've even almost died for me. It shows you really care." "Of course I do. You're my best friend Sakura." "Well, see, I was thinking that there's not much I can do to repay you for all you've done for me. But, I did think of one thing that could be at least a little kick back." "And what's that?" Sakura suddenly grabbed Tatsuya and kissed him. When she released him, she said 'I could date you for real." "Are you serious?" "Completely. So, will you have me, Tatsu?" "Like I can say no. Of course I will, Sakura. You know, I'd be lying if I said the idea of asking you out hadn't crossed my mind at least once over the years." "Well, now I feel slow on the draw." "Ah, don't do that." Tatsuya said, rubbing Sakura's head. "Hey, quit that." Sakura said, while trying to repress a laugh. "Reminds me a little of me and Eighty." Ryoko said out loud. "Eighty? Oh, your boyfriend?" Sakura asked. Ryoko nodded. "Where is he?" "Well, if he wasn't killed or captured or by the monsters, he's waiting for me back in the land of light. Waiting to be unfrozen." "Unfrozen?" Tatsuya asked. "As you've probably heard Tatsuya, the plasma spark, which you and Riser possess a good part of the power of as Titan, is the heart of our world. And by that, I mean it is our sun. Without it's warming rays, the land of light becomes a frozen wasteland. That's what happened to it when Ultraman Belial took it when he attacked." "That's the second time I've heard that name. Who is Ultraman Belial?" Ryoko quickly told Belial's story. "I see. Man, Seven's son Zero must really be powerful if he beat him." "He is. In fact, he's one of the strongest warriors the land of light has. However, thanks to the power of the armor, Riser's abilities have been magnified by the power of the spark to the point where he may be stronger than Zero." "And Zero and Riser are second cousins, if I understand right. Great. When they meet up again, some old fashioned family rivalry is gonna flare up." "Don't worry. Seven and Ken when will keep their sons in check. But, first, we must rescue Ken." "And we will. But we need to find that ship first." "And as soon as we have time to search, we will find it." Sakura said, confidently. Ryoko nodded. "Um, say, Ryoko?" Sakura asked. "Yes?" "Would you mind bonding with me? You know, so I can have the power of an ultra?" "Ah, you want to be some help to Tatsuya in battle." Sakura nodded. "What? You just become my official girlfriend and now you pull this?" "Don't worry, Tatsuya, for I must turn Sakura down." "But why?" Sakura asked. "Because, these monsters can only be defeated by a force as strong as Titan. I am not Titan, there for I can effectively fight them. And I will not let you merge with me when I know we could not win and you could possibly get hurt or worse in the process." "I see." Tatsuya grabbed Sakura's arm and turned her to face him. "Listen, Saku. I know you wanna do all you can to help, but just know, your cheering is more than enough. It reminds me of what I'm fighting for and that gives me the strength to carry on. So, trust me, your doing plenty." Sakura nodded. "Alright, let's go back to class." "Right."

That afternoon, after school, Sakura and Tatsuya walked home, hand in hand. Ken came along half way, since his house was along the way. He was somewhat surprised to hear the news about Tatsuya and Sakura, but he admitted that he had suspected something. After saying goodbye to Ken, the couple walked the rest of the way home. When they arrived at Tatsuya's house, they found Mrs. Higurashi in the front yard, pulling weeds out of her flower garden. When she saw them, and the fact that they were holding hands, she squealed a little bit. "You two don't know how happy it makes me to see you like this. I really have wanted this for you two for a long time." The two nodded in understanding. Just then, a car rolled up and a woman stepped out. "Tatsuya, hey!" It was Hitomi. "Oh, hey, Hitomi." "Hey, this your girlfriend? She's cute." "Well, thank you, ma'am. Say, your that lady from I-NAC." Sakura said. "Yup, Hitomi's the name. And, you can call me that. After all, any friend of Tatsuya's is a friend of mine." "Thank you. Wow, Tatsu. You must've really hit it off with her when you met her at the I-NAC base." "Well, actually…" "Hold it." Mrs. Higurashi said, finally speaking up. The group looked to Tatsuya's mother. "Did I hear you say that your name is Hitomi?" "That's right." "Your surname wouldn't happen to be Watanabe would it?" "Yeah, it is." " 'Gasp' Hitomi!" "Do I know you?" "It's me, Akane!" "Akane….Akane!" Hitomi ran to Tatsuya's mother and hugged her. "Um, mom, you know her?" "Oh, that's right. You haven't met much of my family, have you Tatsuya? Well, Hitomi here is my cousin, which makes her your second cousin." "See, Tatsuya, I told you that I felt a connection between us. I just didn't think we'd be this close." Hitomi said. Tatsuya nodded. "Oh, it's been so long, Hitomi. Last I saw you, you were getting your pilots license and now you're a member of I-NAC I hear." "And you were just getting married. I can't believe I forgot that Kazuma's last name was Higurashi. Speaking of him, where is he?" "He should be home shortly. He works at channel nine as part of the news team. But, he was getting off early today. You must join us for dinner, Hitomi." "Well, I don't have anything else to do tonight, so, sure." Mrs. Higurashi nodded and then looked at Sakura. "You too, Sakura." "Can you, Saku?" Tatsuya asked. "Well, dad called earlier and said he'd be working late tonight and mom's out of town, so, I guess I can come." "Great. I'll get started on dinner right now then." Mrs. Higurashi then went inside the house. "Hey, Tatsuya?" Hitomi asked. "Yeah?" "Does Sakura here know about your secret?" "You mean about him being Ultraman?" Sakura said. "I'll take that as a yes. How'd you find out?" "By accident, how about you?" "Same. Listen, no matter what, we can't let Akane find out. She'd just about lose her mind, for sure." Sakura nodded.

That night, at dinner, the group talked and caught up. Then, it was brought up that tomorrow was the beginning of golden week, which was a three day vacation time for the kids. Mr. Higurashi brought up that he'd be able to take tomorrow off and then Mrs. Higurashi said that they all, including Sakura and Hitomi, should do something together tomorrow. Setsuna brought up that a girl in her class and her family were going on a picnic at the lake and Mrs. Higurashi thought that was a brilliant idea. And so, it was decided that they all would go on a picnic tomorrow at the lake.

The next day, the group went to the lake. While Mr. and Mrs. Higurashi laid done the picnic blanket, Hitomi checked her I-NAC issue pulsar pistol. "Why'd you bring that gun, Hitomi?" Setsuna asked. "Just in case a monster shows up. I want to be able to fight and protect everyone until Ultraman shows up." Setsuna nodded. Once everything was laid out, the group began to eat happily. Meanwhile, on the monsters' ship, Draxil was calling on one his last remaining subordinates. His name was Loas. He was a humanoid shark monster. "Alright, Draxil, I've watched everyone else get taken out, so, why should I go?" Loas asked. "Because I heard that Ultramen make a very tasty meal and I know you like to eat. That's why you and Drago got along so well. Oh, and don't forget, Ultraman was the one who killed your friend Drago." "Yeah, that's right." "Well, return the favor, so to speak Avenge Drago!" "Yeah, I will! Let's go!" "Great, and if you want to make sure that you draw Ultraman out, attack this place. Computer, show him what I'm talking about." The computer posted an image of a dam on a nearby screen. "This is called a dam. It holds back tons of water. Destroy it and that water will flood the town. That kind of threat is sure to draw Ultraman out." "Got it, no let's go!" "Right then. Computer, send Loas to Earth and set him down near the dam." "Acknowledged. Loas, prepare for transport." The portal opened and Loas stepped through.

Down on Earth, the sky began to warp out of shape. Sakura noticed it first and said 'we need to get out of here.' "Why, Sakura? Are you sick or something?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "No, look!" The others looked up and saw the sky warping. "See that? Every time that happens, it means a monster is about to show up. We need to get out of here!" Just as she said this, the portal tore open and Loas crashed down. "A monster!" Setsuna cried. Suddenly, the group heard a click. They looked to see Hitomi adjusting her gun. "I'll distract it while you run!" "But, Hitomi…" "Don't argue with me, Akane! It's headed for the dam and I have to stop it! Just go!" Mrs. Higurashi nodded and led he group as the ran off. However, half way, Tatsuya turned back. He intended to transform and deal with the monster. However, his mother happened to look back. She stopped as well, which caused the others to stop. "Tatsuya, why are you stopping, we have to go!" "I'm sorry, mom. I can't leave Hitomi like that. I have to help her." "You can't help her!" "Yes, I can! In fact, I'm the only one here that can help her! I'm the only one who can do anything!" "But, how can you help her?" "I can help her because…" "Tatsuya, don't!" Sakura yelled. "I'm sorry, Sakura. But, I can't lie my way out of this one. You wanna know why I'm the only one who can do anything? Well, fine, I'll tell you. I'm the only one who can, because, I'm Ultraman!" "Tatsuya…This is no time to be kidding around!" "He's…he's not kidding, Mrs. Higurashi. Tatsuya really is Ultraman. He's his human form. He's how Ultraman always knows when we're in trouble. Tatsuya's the one who's been fighting the monsters and protecting us all." "What? But, then that means…" "If you still don't believe, then watch this. Riser!" "Are you sure, Tatsuya?" "Just do it, Riser!" "Right!" Riser produced the gauntlets. "Tatsuya, what are those?" Setsuna asked. "These are what let me transform into Titan, Setsuna. I call them the titan gauntlets. Now, watch what these babies can do!" Tatsuya began to go through the arm movements. However, Sakura ran over to him. "Tatsu!" "What?" Sakura kissed him. "Good luck! Kick some butt and come back safe, cause you've got some explaining to do." Tatsuya nodded and then finished the arm movements. He then shot his fist towards the sky and yelled "Titan!" Suddenly, Tatsuya began to glow. "Let's go, Riser!" "Right!" Tatsuya began to run towards the monster. As he did, grew in size and morphed into Titan before his family's eyes. By the time he reached the water's edge, he had fully transformed. He then leaped from the shore and landed on the Loas's back. He dragged Loas down and Loas retaliated. He spun around and punched Titan several times in the face. Titan returned the favor by ducking low and hammering Loas's stomach with multiple jabs. He then fell onto his back and kicked Loas in the jaw from below. Loas shook off the kick and then jumped back. He then revealed his worst weapon. His teeth began to spin around in his mouth like hundreds of deadly drills. He then showed his jumping ability and came flying through the air at Titan. He aimed his flying bite at Titan's head, but Titan blocked it with his arms. However, the teeth still dug into Titan's arms. Titan yelled in pain. Titan struggled to get loose. As he did, tremendous damage got done to his arms. So much so that the color timer began to blink. "What's that red light mean?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "It means Ultraman's been hurt." Sakura said. "No! Tatsuya! Come back!" "He can't, or rather, he won't." They heard. They saw Hitomi come walking up. "Hitomi, you knew about this too?" "Yeah, but I found out by accident, just like Sakura did. Anyway, Tatsuya probably didn't want anybody to know about what was going because he was probably afraid of something happening to anyone who found out." "Exactly. So, really, his not telling you and even lying about it was his way of protecting you. So please, don't be mad at him. He only lies, and fights, to protect those he cares about." Sakura said. Mrs. Higurashi was still shocked, but nodded in understanding. Meanwhile, Titan hand finally forced his way to freedom by pointing one of his hands towards the inside of Loas's mouth and firing an energy blast. The blast broke Titan free but also left some of Loas's teeth in Titan's arms. Titan shrugged off the pain and ripped the teeth out. He then began wailing on Loas. He broke several more teeth, effectively disabling his bite attack. Loas struggled to continue the fight. He charged Titan in a rage and managed to push him back up against the front wall of the dam. Loas then jumped back and went for a body slam. Just as he did, Titan changed to power mode. He stopped Loas's attack dead in it's tracks. He then grabbed Loas by the arms and swung around in a circle for a moment, before releasing him. Loas went flying into the air. Titan flew off after him. Before he reached him, he charged up the Ultra Dynamite attack and then exploded it when he caught up to Loas. Loas was blown to smithereens and Titan disappeared in the explosion. "Tatsuya!" Mrs. Higurashi yelled, thinking her son had just been destroyed. However, Titan reappeared seconds later on the ground, safe and sound. Tatsuya looked down to his friends and family. "You did it, Tatsuya! Way to go!" Sakura yelled. Titan nodded. He then disappeared. Tatsuya reappeared on the shore of the lake. He then ran back to his family. "Tatsuya, that was amazing!" Setsuna yelled. "I never figured you were Ultraman. But, now that dream you told me about makes sense." She continued. Tatsuya nodded. "Tatsuya?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "Yeah, mom?" "Tell me, should I be upset with you or proud of you? Cause right now, I don't know what to feel?" "Feel a sense of trust, mom. Just trust in me. I promise you, I will always come back. No matter what, I'll always come back." Mrs. Higurashi nodded. "And I'll make sure of that." Hitomi said. Mrs. Higurashi nodded again. " I can't say I approve of this, but, Ultraman is the only thing that can stop the monsters. So, if you make good on your promise, I guess I can let you continue. Right dear?" "Uh, I guess." Mr. Higurashi said. Tatsuya nodded. "Alright, let's go home. I'll tell you the whole story on the way back home." "Right, let's go." By the time the family arrived back home, they had heard the entire story. "Well, if you owe Riser that much, then you should repay your debt. But, if Riser can hear me, please, keep him safe while he does so." Mrs. Higurashi said. "Riser said he will." "Good." The family then noticed woman sitting on their front step. Tatsuya knew her. "Ryoko!" "Hello, Tatsuya. I'm here to tell you something." "What?" "Marie is ready to see her son."


	14. The mothers of Titan

Chapter 14

Tatsuya was taken aback by what Ryoko had said. "What? Are you serious?" Ryoko nodded. "She's still in pretty bad shape, but she's recovered enough to hold a conversation of decent length. And, she wants to talk with her son." "Tatsuya, who is this woman?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "This is Ryoko. She's the human form of one of the ultras here on Earth that's helping me train to be a better Ultraman. Her true form is known as Yullian, and she's the princess of the Ultras' world." "A princess?" Mrs. Higurashi quickly bowed and the rest of the family followed, along with Hitomi. Only Tatsuya and Sakura stayed standing upright. "Tatsuya! Sakura! Your in the presence of royalty! Show some respect and bow!" Mr. Higurashi said. "It's quite alright. None of you need bow before me." Ryoko said. "But…" "Please, rise." The Higurashi family and Hitomi nodded and rose up. "Thank you. Oh, and thank you for bringing this courageous young man into the world, Mr. and Mrs. Higurashi." Ryoko said, gesturing over to Tatsuya. "Stop it, Ryoko. Your embarrassing me." Tatsuya said, scratching the back of his head. "I take it you all know his secret?" The group nodded. "But, I'm not sure right now whether I should be upset with him for not telling me about this or proud of him for having the courage to step up. All I do know is that he told me to trust him, which as his mother, I naturally do." Mrs. Higurashi said. "Good. And let me say, your trust is well placed. As for what you should feel, all I can say is, if Tatsuya was my son, I'd be extremely proud of him. He and Riser have done a fine job. They may even make brother." "Brother?" Setsuna asked. "Oh, right. You don't know what that means. Well, it means that they could be made a high ranking officer, which we call a brother, in our space garrison, which you could liken to a military base here on Earth. It would be like a private rank officer in the military doing something incredibly courageous and receiving a several rank promotion for it." "I see." Setsuna said, nodding in understanding. "Alright, I hate to rush things but, Marie is waiting for us, Tatsuya." Ryoko said. "Right, let's go." "Wait! Who is this Marie?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "Riser's mother." Tatsuya said. "What?" "She's also known as Ultra Mother." Ryoko said. "Ultra Mother? My and Hitomi's grandfather saw her once when he was just a kid. Remember, Hitomi?" "Oh, yeah. It was just after his eyesight came back. Yeah, I remember hearing that story from Grandpa Takashi." "Hmm, your grandfather saw her as a child and now your son is the human host of her son. How's that saying go? 'It's a small world.'" "It sure is. So, why is Ultra Mother here on Earth?" Ryoko explained the situation. "Oh, poor Ms. Marie." Setsuna said. "So, you see why I must hurry and take Tatsuya to her. I don't know when she might loose consciousness again. We must take advantage of this time." "Um, Princess?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "Please, call me Ryoko." "Alright, Ryoko, do you think it would be alright if we came along with you?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "Well, I don't think having all of you present is such a good idea. You know the rule about too many visitors. But, I suppose it would be alright for you to come, Mrs. Higurashi." "Just me? But…" "Go on, Dear. As the mothers of Titan, you and Marie have a lot to talk about. You can tell us about her later." Mr. Higurashi urged. Hitomi and Setsuna nodded in agreement. "Well, alright. Would she mind if I took a picture of her?" "I don't think so." "Alright, let me go get my camera." Mrs. Higurashi ran inside. Sakura meanwhile, began to head towards her house. "Sakura…" Tatsuya said. "Too many visitors, remember? You can tell me about her later." Tatsuya nodded. Sakura took three steps and then returned. She kissed Tatsuya's cheek and said 'you really did do a good job today. Just like you always do. Well, see you tomorrow. We can go to the movies or something." "Like on a date?" "Exactly." Sakura said before walking back home. Just then, Mrs. Higurashi came back out. "Where's Sakura?" "She went back home." Mr. Higurashi said. "Oh, I see. She must be tired. Alright, Ryoko, let's go. We can take my car." "Alright, let's go. Come on, Tatsuya." "Right." The three loaded into the car and drove off.

The drive took about thirty minutes. The Higurashi's found themselves at an abandoned house. "Come along, she's in here." Ryoko said. The three entered the house and headed up to what would've been the master bedroom. "She's in here." Ryoko then knocked on the door. "Marie, are you awake?" "Yes, I am." "Alright, we're coming in then." Ryoko opened the door and the three walked inside. Inside of the room, sitting in a chair, was a woman wearing a green crossing guards outfit. She had a slightly chubby face. Overall, she had a very cheery look to her. Tatsuya took in her sight. She hadn't said one word to him and he already felt as comfortable as he would if he was he was looking at his own mother. "So, this is him, eh, Princess?" Marie asked. "Yes, this is Tatsuya Higurashi, the one bonded to your son. And this is his mother. Don't worry, she knows about everything." " I see. Tatsuya, Mrs. Higurashi, please, come sit with me." Tatsuya and Mrs. Higurashi walked over to Marie. Mrs. Higurashi sat in the chair next to Marie. Tatsuya, meanwhile, went to go sit on the nearby bed. As he bent over to sit on the bed, Marie suddenly grabbed his left cheek with her hand. She led him to her this way and then kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Tatsuya." "Uh, for what?" "For helping Riser. He needs all the friends he can get. So, thank you for being his first friend here on Earth." "Hey, what else was I supposed to do? I'd probably be dead right now if it wasn't for Riser. Being his friend and helping with his mission is the least I could do." "Um, Ms. Marie?" Mrs. Higurashi said suddenly. "Yes?" "Um, I'd like to thank you." "For what?" "Well, for giving birth to Riser. If not for him, I would've lost my only son. And, he wouldn't be around if not for you. So, thank you." "Heh, I've never been thanked for giving birth by anyone other than my husband." "Well, I just thought it was appropriate." "Well, I appreciate the sentiment. Now then, Tatsuya?" "Yes?" "Could you please transform?" "Um, okay, but, why?" "I wish to see my son. I want to see what he's become in person." "Alright. Riser, you know what to do." "I'd be more than happy to, Tatsuya." Riser produced the gauntlets and Tatsuya went through the arm movements. He shouted Titan when he finished and was covered in golden light. When the light faded, a Tatsuya-sized Titan stood in Tatsuya's place. "Riser…" Marie said, while reaching for Riser. Suddenly, Titan wrapped his arms around his mother and hugged. "I'm so glad to see you, mother." Tears began to form in Marie's eyes as she hugged her son. "I'm glad to see you to, Riser." Marie then pulled away from Riser in order to get a better look at him. "My, look at you. Your all grown up and so strong. Truly, the power of the plasma spark is great if it changed you this much." "Well, I think this plasma spark's power just sped up the growth of the, well, let's call them the 'seeds of heroism' that you planted, Ms. Marie." Mrs. Higurashi said. "I think everything Titan is was already in Riser because of you and your husband and the power of the spark simply gave it more power. Basically, the spark finished what you started." "Hmm, maybe so. By the way, Mrs. Higurashi, let's not forget that half of Titan's heroism comes from Tatsuya. And I think he has that much courage because you raised him right. So, I say, give credit where credit is due." "Hey, that's my line." Mrs. Higurashi said. "Why don't you both just take the credit? Cause you both deserve it." Ryoko said. The two smiled and nodded. "You know, you two just met and yet you act like a couple of old friends." Ryoko said. "You know, I like the sound of that." Marie said. "Like the sound of what, Ms. Marie?" Mrs. Higurashi asked. "Of calling you a friend. I mean, we're in the same boat, so we should be friends, shouldn't we?" "Good point. Well then, let's be friends, Ms. Marie." "Please, if we're going to be friends then just call me Marie." "And you can call me Akane." Marie nodded and shook hands with Mrs. Higurashi. They then took a picture. Tatsuya smiled within Titan as he watched this. Riser enjoyed it as well. But then, he remembered that his mother was the head of the silver crusaders, the chief healing crew of the land of light. He then wondered if his mother could revive Taro. "Mother?" "Yes, Riser?" "I was wondering, could you revive Taro once this is all over?" "Ah, yes, Taro. I sensed his fall. It broke my heart, for I had already sensed Ace's fall as well." "Wait, Ace is gone as well?" "Yes. It pains me to say it but, yes." "Please tell me Mebius is okay!" "I didn't sense anything involving him. So, either he's been frozen or taken captive by the monsters." "I see. Well, Tatsuya and I will save him regardless of the situation." "I'm sure you will." "But, what about Taro and Ace? And all the others that fell in the invasion? Can you save them?" "Perhaps, if I was back at full strength." "Then please, let me heal you. I'm sure with the power I've gained that I could heal you. Can't believe I didn't think of this before. Oh, and Ryoko, I could take care of any injuries you may have left." "I'm fine, Riser. But, if you could heal Marie, I'd appreciate it. It pains me to see her struggle along." Riser nodded. "Alright, mother, let's do it. Hurry up and transform. I think the healing will work better if your in your ultra form." "Riser, I've come along way but, I'm still too weak to transform on my own." "Then…." Riser looked to Mrs. Higurashi. "Mrs. Higurashi, Akane, whatever you want me to call you, I beg you, please, lend my mother your strength. Merge with her, just this once, and she should have the strength to transform just long enough for me to heal her. It's nothing permanent, it's just this once. Please!" Akane thought about it for a moment and then nodded. Tatsuya felt proud of his mother at this moment. "Let's do it, Marie." Marie nodded and grabbed a hold of Mrs. Higurashi's hand. She glowed with a golden light and slowly, this light worked it's way over to Mrs. Higurashi. When it had completely worked it's way over to Mrs. Higurashi, Marie ad disappeared. Once the merger was complete, a blue band appeared on Mrs. Higurashi's wrist. "I guess that's it. Now what?" Mrs. Higurashi heard Marie's voice inside her head. "Touch the band on your wrist and then say my name." "Um, alright." Mrs. Higurashi touched the band and then shouted 'Marie!' Suddenly, Mrs. Higurashi was bathed in light. When the light faded, she stood as Marie. "Wow, this is amazing!" "Alright, are you ready?" Riser asked. Mrs. Higurashi quickly gathered herself and nodded. Just then the timer crystal on Marie's chest began to blink. "That can't be good. Hurry, Riser." Riser nodded. He then placed his fists on either side of his timer crystal and charged energy. He then extended his arms and emitted the energy he had charged as something that looked like a mist. This mist was absorbed by Marie's crystal. The blinking stopped and the crystal glowed a solid blue. "Well, how do you feel Marie?" Ryoko asked. "Better. Much better. Better than I have been in a while. Ah, thank you Riser." Riser nodded. "Alright then, time to split up." Marie then split from Mrs. Higurashi and resumed her human form. "That was incredible. I wouldn't mind doing that again sometime." Mrs. Higurashi said. "Who can say? We might need to do that again some day." Marie said. Mrs. Higurashi nodded. She then noticed that the band wasn't gone from her wrist. "Um, Marie?" "Yes, Akane?" "This band didn't disappear. Tatsuya's gauntlets disappear when he's done, so why didn't this band go away?" "Because I didn't want it to. I made a copy of the original band that I wear and I'm giving it to you as a gift. It's called the mother blue bracelet and it can summon me to you. In case you ever need anything, just touch the bracelet and say my name. You'll instantly be connected to me, no matter how far apart we are. I figured that the mothers of Titan should always be able to get a hold of each other." "Wow, thank you, Marie." "Hey, what are friends for?" Mrs. Higurashi nodded. Then, a thought popped into her head. "Say, um, can you explain something to me?" "Sure. What is it?" "Well, I know that that crystal on your chest, well, that was on our chest and one on Titan's chest is some sort of power slash health meter and it'll start blinking red when an ultra man's hurt and low on power. But, he didn't tell me what happens if it goes out. So, what happens?" "It's simple. If the light goes out, the ultra dies." "What? So, so then, if Titan's light goes out, then Tatsuya will…" "Don't worry, Mrs. Higurashi." Ryoko said. "Ultraman, Ultra Seven and myself are training Titan. And we're doing our best to make sure he's ready for anything. That way, we'll never have to worry about Titan's light going out." "Okay. Please, train him well." "We will." Just then, they noticed Titan's timer begin to flash. "Looks like your nearing you limit, Riser. You'd better change back." Marie said. Riser nodded and reverted back to Tatsuya. "Well, now what?" Tatsuya asked. Mrs. Higurashi checked her watch. "Well, it's getting late. So, we should be heading home." "Okay." "And you two are coming with us." Mrs. Higurashi said, looking at Ryoko and Marie. "What?" Marie asked. "Well, an abandoned house is no place to be living for kind of person. Not when you've got friends. So, come on. You can stay in our guest bedroom." "T-thank you, Akane." Marie said. "Heh, I told you mom's got a big heart, Riser." "She sure does." "Alright, everyone let's go."


End file.
